The White Rose Painted Red
by She Who Cannot Be Turned
Summary: After his death by the hands of his brother, Gabriel honestly thought that was it. Until he realized he was thinking. Which, he was almost certain, wasn't something someone did after they died. Sequel to White Rabbit, but can be read alone.
1. Chapter 1

**Title**: The White Rose (Painted Red)  
**Warnings**: Character Death, OOCness, blasphemy, disregard for any and all religion, strong language, SLASH, sexual situations between two males, violence, angst, randomness, Gabriel (he's a whole warning unto himself)  
**Rating**: NC-17  
**Summary**: After his death by the hands of his brother, Gabriel honestly thought that was it. Until he realized he was thinking. Which, he was almost certain, wasn't something someone did after they died. Sequel to _White Rabbit_, but can be read alone.  
**Disclaimer**: I do not own Harry Potter or Supernatural, they belong to JK Rowling and Eric Kripke respectively. I am not making any money from any of this.  
**Pairing**: Gabriel(Loki)/Harry(Veles)  
**Word** **Count**: 47,477 words

White Rose (Painted Red)

_Gabriel remembered the pain of the blade being thrust into his stomach by Lucifer. He recalled the agony of his Grace being destroyed, of his tenuous bond with Veles being broken as his grip on life snapped and the utter devastation that all of this had been caused by his little brother. The baby brother that he had seen be brought into creation. He was the one that came up with the whole Morning Star description upon seeing Lucifer for the first time. Gabriel was the one that taught him to fly. And Gabriel was the one that was most broken when Lucifer was cast down. _

_Gabriel was of the opinion that _that_ was why his Father allowed him to leave Heaven and 'go Pagan', in fact, that was probably why his Father _helped_ him create a vessel with 'godlike' powers. _

_He remembered, most vividly, two things about dying. The first was the one thing he never expected, and was also the one thing that made it, not alright, but certainly something he forgave his brother for almost instantly. Lucifer regretted it. He truly saw no way around it, and Gabriel understood that feeling completely. The second thing he remembered was probably something that might have made him not so forgiving, had the pain in Lucifer's face not been so prominent. He felt and heard Veles' pain and his dying memories were of the utter betrayal on Veles' face and the pain on Lucifers. _

_Actually, that sucked more than dying did_.

* * *

**Hours Earlier**

Loki knew that things weren't going to go well as soon as he dragged Veles to the _Elysian Fields_ hotel. He really had hoped that it would be a simple in and out job and that they'd be able to get the Winchester's out before anything truly bad actually happened.

But then, he should have known that wouldn't happen. His luck hadn't exactly been the greatest thing, and Veles was almost, if not more, unlucky than he was. Together, he should have known they were screwed.

However, Loki knew he couldn't _not_ help. He just wished that Veles didn't always feel that he had to go with Loki on every dangerous thing he did. Admittedly, he loved that Veles felt that need, but at the same time, he hated dragging Veles down with him.

Still, going back into that room even after Veles had given him an out? He knew it was a really bad idea. And now, he got where that feeling was coming from.

"No! I promised you! I promised I wouldn't leave you behind! I'm not doing it, Gabriel! I'm not leaving you!" Loki strengthened his resolve, no matter how much he was crumbling inside over Veles' words. He looked towards where Lucifer was watching with shrewd interest.

Loki glanced over at where Sam was struggling to keep a hold of Veles, then cringed when Veles bit Sam to make him let go.

"Veles, you have to leave, this is between me and Lucifer!" Loki finally spoke, then, taking a deep breath and prepping himself for the reaction he was about to get, he pulled a twig from his pocket. He managed to hide the flinch when Veles looked at it and then turned to stare at him in horror.

"No…" Veles whispered and Loki felt his heart clench at the tone, he shot Veles the most apologetic look he possibly could, and then snapped the twig, ignore the pained hiss that brought. Then, he did the only thing he could think of, and set the twig on fire.

Loki knew that seeing Veles choke out a pained scream, coughing up blood before arching in pain and finally passing out, was something that would stay with Loki for the rest of his, admittedly very short, life. Watching Sam shoot him a wary look, before he gathered Veles into his arms and ran out of the room, was possibly the thing that finally killed any shred of self-respect Loki had.

Loki stayed watching the door for what seemed like an age, but was truly only a second or so, before he slumped and turned to face his brother. Lucifer was watching him with an indescribable look on his face, that made Loki begin to wonder what he was thinking.

"You truly surprise me, Gabriel," Lucifer murmured, and Loki just shrugged his shoulders and shot Lucifer a smarmy smirk.

"Well, I never have liked being predictable," Loki pointed out, snapping his fingers and making his true blade appear in his hands.

"Shacking up with the Pagans though, Gabriel? Really? I thought you were better than that. Clearly I misjudged you, brother," Lucifer said in a voice that sounded truly disappointed and just made Loki's hackles rise.

"That was no Pagan god, Luci. That was Veles. He's a God. Uppercase G and all. He's the ruler and only deity for the magical beings in this world. You think he's going to let you get away with this?" Loki asked, sneering at his brother as he warily began to circle him. Lucifer just watched him with smug amusement.

"What does he think he can do to me? He's insignificant and will soon be wiped off the face of this world along with the rest of this pitiful worlds inhabitants," Lucifer told him, and Loki was startled enough to laugh at the sheer arrogance of his brother.

"That pride was what got you in trouble the first time. I thought you might have learnt your lesson by now, but clearly I was wrong. I never wanted to kill you, Lucifer. And I'm not naïve enough to think that I'll win in this fight. But, Veles? I belong to him, I'm not longer the Archangel Gabriel, Herald of the Lord Almighty or whatever they call me. I'm Loki, Norse Trickster god and consort of Veles. I'm the consort of the God of the Magical races. He'll know when I lose today," Loki told him, straightening his back as he prepared himself to face his brother, and to die. He knew what would happen today.

Veles had known as well.

"You have such confidence in your little god. It is sickening that you have so willingly turned your back on our Father," Lucifer sneered, and Loki couldn't even try to hold back the harsh bark of laughter at that comment.

"You're kidding me, right? _You_ are ashamed of _me_ for turning my back on Father? I haven't, I never did! Our Father gave his acceptance over our relationship. You, on the other hand, I think were you have been trapped for the past several millennia is a clear indication on which of us our Father was ashamed of. You delusional fuckwit," Loki spat, before he gasped in shock when Lucifer's hand shot out and grabbed the wrist he was holding his blade in.

"Do not think you can judge me, Gabriel!" Lucifer sneered, gripping Loki's wrist tightly as he narrowed the gap between them.

"Angel—of—Judgment." Loki pointed out, choking slightly as Lucifer wrapped his free hand around Loki's throat.

"You lost that title when you stopped being an archangel, _brother,_" Lucifer spat, and Loki looked up at Lucifer, wondering what had happened to the brother he once knew. Lucifer looked him in the eye, and it was enough for Loki to see remorse in Lucifer's eyes just as he felt his own sword being stabbed into his stomach.

Loki gasped in pain, arms reaching up to grab onto Lucifer's shoulders, and watching as Lucifer's eyes shuttered in grief. Just as his sight stated to blacken, Loki could have sworn that he saw a tear fall down Lucifer's cheek as he let go of Loki's body.

* * *

_Gabriel could hear voices, which was even more weird than having conscious thought even though he was supposed to be completely destroyed. Grace, soul, pagan god bits and all. So… the voices were new. And if he could get his mind focused enough to listen to what they were saying… then maybe he'd find out what the hell was going on._

* * *

**Two Weeks Earlier**

Loki staunchly squashed down the feeling of guilt that was rising the further he stepped into the forest of Veles. He was well aware that what he was doing would possibly ruin any relationship he had with Veles, but if he had to use it, then he didn't think he'd last long enough to feel Veles' wrath.

Glancing nervously around him, Loki brushed his fingers over the trees and bushes that he passed, somehow feeling that they seemed agitated and anxious about his visit. Which should have been odd, had the owner of this forest not been the God of Magic. However, given the close relationship he had with the forest's creator/owner, he was able to settle them with a brush of his fingers, luckily.

Loki finally reached the heart of the forest and looked up at the large tree before him, smiling at the sheer sensation of Veles that it gave off. He then nibbled his lip and stepped up to the tree trunk and wondered how he was going to go about his plan without tipping himself off to Veles.

He'd chosen his timing perfectly, however, with regards to how distracted Veles would be already. The Ankou had been having a small problem between who was supposed to take the souls and where. So Veles had had to call a small meeting with his five main Ankou and they were, apparently, going to sort it all out and, Loki was uncertain if he's misheard, but he swore Veles had said something about a soul and continent schedule. It did sound weird enough for something Veles would do, so he possibly didn't mishear.

The point, however, was that Loki had chosen to come here when he knew that Veles would have other problems on his mind, ignoring the tree that was, for all intents and purposes, his life force. Closing his eyes to try and get a hold on what Veles was feeling, he smiled sadly when he felt intense frustration and the beginnings of sheer anger, which Loki felt was the perfect thing to distract Veles.

Moving quickly, before the tree or any of the surrounding foliage realised what he was up to and stopped him, Loki reached up and quickly snapped a thin twig from the end of a branch. Hopefully, the worst it did was give Veles indigestion. That's what he claimed happened whenever birds snapped off twigs and leaves for their nests.

Their intentions were pure however, his were less so. Loki glanced at the tree when it shook, then noticed a small branch of a vivid red leafed ivy snaking it's way to his ankle. Not wanting to stay around to find out what that plant would do to him, should it touch him, Loki snapped his fingers and was gone from the forest, small piece of twig held tightly and safely in his hands.

He refused to let Lucifer destroy the one thing he honestly felt he loved. Even if it meant losing that thing in the long run. Every god learns that sacrifices come par for the course of life.

* * *

"_Wait, really? You just got bored when making these? That joke is _right_? Huh. My respect has gone down immensely." Gabriel frowned. Or at least, he considered the possibility of frowning and had he a physical body, then that would have certainly frowned. He _knew_ that voice. _

"_You never had any respect for me to start with.__" The voice that answered made Gabriel's mind frantically try to both scramble to remember who it belonged to and also remember _why_ he had the urge to run as fast and as far away as possible, whilst also want to burrow into the owner of the voice. _

"_Right, true. Also? Quit with the voice already. It's giving me jaw ache."_

* * *

**Six Months Earlier**

Loki smirked as he clicked his fingers once more and Dean was suddenly driving the Impala with no Sam in sight. If anyone were to ask, Loki would admit that this was possibly his greatest prank to date, and yes, he did feel somewhat disappointed and put out that Veles wasn't around to witness it.

He did have an ulterior motive to this prank, but since first bumping into the two hunters, all of his tricks on them had had a reason behind them. He just wanted them to accept their fates and say yes to his brothers. Well, no, actually, that was sort of a lie. He wasn't entirely sure he _did_ want that to happen.

In fact, he knew that was what he _didn't_ want to happen in the least. But he needed to know just how strong Sam and Dean were. He had to see for himself that they would continue to say no and give he and Veles a chance to sort out everything they were going to do about Lucifer and Michael, and all that came with the two.

Not that Veles really had to do anything with regards to either, but all the same, neither one wanted to see the world destroyed. So Loki had decided to just… look and see how things were going.

Not well, was the answer.

Loki jerked back to attention just in time for Sam and Dean to realise that staking him (again) hadn't worked. And Sam was the Impala. Really, Loki's genius knew no bounds. Veles really was missing out here.

"Okay, stake didn't work. So, what, this is another trick?" Dean had asked, and Loki held back the chuckle he wanted to let out. Really, turning Sam into the Impala was brilliant. Deciding to leave the two to figure out what they had to do to get out of that situation, Loki clicked his fingers and went to check on his little brother. Who, really, was too damn observant for his own good.

And wily. Actually, Loki really quite liked little Castiel.

He appeared in the room Castiel had been bound up in and smiled brightly at the glare Castiel sent him.

"Oh, don't look like that! This is all for your own goods! You'll see!" Loki said, ignoring the little voice in the back of his head that pointed out that it clearly _wasn't_ for the good of anyone, other than his humour and curiosity, but that voice was easily ignored. Castiel's glare just got more venomous. "You practice that look in the mirror? I know someone that does that. Strange guy, called Prentice. Seems to think if he practices looking menacing, then he will one day make a soul cry in fear."

Loki stopped talking when Castiel tried to say something to him. Tilting his head to the side, Loki wondered whether it was worth listening to what Castiel had to say or not. Curiosity getting the better of him, he clicked his fingers and the tape on Castiel's mouth was pulled aside.

"What do you want from us, Gabriel?" Loki shrugged, still not entirely comfortable being addressed by that name after so long of going by something else.

"I told you, I'm just here to observe something and hopefully pass on a message. Is it working? Do you think they will play their parts?" Loki asked, honestly wondering what the answer would be, and he figured nobody knew the Winchester's quite as well as Castiel probably did.

"No. I don't. They will never agree to being the vessels of our brothers, so you should accept that and let us leave. Or, better yet, help us," Castiel told him, and Loki turned to look away, shaking his head slightly at he did.

"No can do, little bro," Loki paused and then smirked at Castiel, clicking his fingers to make the tap go back over his mouth. "Well, looks like I'm being called. Gotta go."

Loki reappeared in a picnic area of a wilderness park, he hadn't actually bothered to see where he was, given that, technically, they weren't actually outside of the warehouse he'd lured the two hunters into.

"Wow, Sam. Get a load of the rims on you," Loki said, smirking as it made Dean jerk to glare at him.

"Eat me," Sam the Impala muttered, and Loki's smirk grew, before he suddenly recalled what Dean had yelled, and turned serious, looking at the two.

"Okay, boys. Ready to go quietly?" Loki asked them, holding up a hand to click his fingers as soon as they gave their answer. A tiny part of him was disappointed that they'd given up. He really had wished they'd prove him wrong.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, not so fast. Nobody's going anywhere until Sam has opposable thumbs," Dean said, and Loki was actually impressed that Dean knew what opposable thumbs _were_.

"What's the difference? Satan's going to ride his ass one way or another," Loki pointed out, hoping that his disappointment and fear didn't show on his face or in his voice. Dean however, just gave him an unimpressed look, causing Loki to roll his eyes and click his fingers. The lights on the Impala went out, and Sam climbed out of the car. Loki looked at Dean. "Happy?"

"Tell me one thing. Why didn't the stake kill you?" Dean asked, and Loki shrugged before smirking.

"I am the Trickster," Loki pointed out, then felt warning bells in the back of his mind go off when Dean raised an eyebrow.

"Or maybe you're not." And those warning bells turned into damn claxons. Especially when Sam held up a lit cigarette lighter and then threw it to the floor.

Loki's eyes widened when a ring of fire sprung up around him, trapping him and making him sag, sighing as he looked at the two smug hunters. He hated hunters.

"Maybe you've always been an angel." It had to have been Sam that worked it out. Loki refused to accept that Dean, the smug bastard, had worked it out. Though, he was secretly impressed that either had done so (and by either, he seriously just meant Sam).

Loki decided to try and bluff his way out of it, and laughed mockingly. "A what? Somebody slip a mickey in your power shake, kid?"

"I'll tell you what. You just jump out of the holy fire and we'll call it our mistake." Loki hated Dean, really, the smug fucking bastard. He had deserved everything heading his way. Closing his eyes as though in defeat, snapping his fingers to stop the illusion, just as he prayed.

_'Veles. Oh mighty Lord and somewhat midgetty god of magical folk. I could really do with your help round about now, so drop the frogs, let 'em kill each other and get your adorable little ass over here. Please. If you wouldn't mind. Amen?_ Loki swore he heard a somewhat pissy growl echo in the back of his mind, but couldn't be too sure on that one. He did feel he was going to pay for that later though.

By the time Veles appeared, Loki was beginning to tire of the two brothers in front of him, he'd given them back their damned angel, and yet here he still was, cooking nicely. He felt he'd be done to perfection in ten to twelve minutes. Sensing Veles' arrival however, Loki smiled brightly, which made Sam falter in whatever he had been whining on about.

"I knew you'd come if I called for you!" He exclaimed, turning to where he sensed Veles, beaming when Veles just smiled at him in amusement and shook his head, rolling his eyes at him. A sharp gasp from behind him made him glance to see Sam gaping at Veles. Dismissing it, Loki turned back to see Veles walking towards him, ridiculously long and imperial (No, really, Loki and Veles had decided to 'influence' George Lucas' ideas on the clothing of the Imperial Guard, using Veles' cloak as inspiration) cloak dragging across the floor behind him.

"You? But… I killed you!" Huh, Loki had forgotten about that. Maybe he should have told Sam to leave before Veles got there. He was still a little tetchy about that.

"I know. It hurt. I still have that bone to pick with you," Veles sneered and Loki rolled his eyes, wondering if Veles would let him out before he possibly quite literally picked Sam's bones. "Now, what has Loki done to you this time? You're all alive, so he hasn't repeatedly killed one of you over and over. Besides, he prefers to not repeat pranks. Loki, the little angel looks somewhat pale, what did you do to him?"

Ignoring his instinctive reaction to deny anything, Loki instead glanced to the side and saw that Castiel did indeed look somewhat… awed. Which was very amusing and made it apparent that he knew who Veles was straight away.

"You know him? Who the hell are you?" Dean demanded, sneering at Veles, making Loki roll his eyes at the apparent lack of self-preservation on display. Veles obviously bristled and was about to answer, but was beaten to the post by Castiel of all people.

"He's a God," Castiel whispered, and Dean turned to look at the angel in confusion, whilst Sam never took his eyes off of either Trickster.

"What? A god? Like a Hindu god or something?" Dean asked, and Loki winced, just knowing the reaction that was going to get. The look of disbelief he shot at Veles just made his case even worse. Loki sort of felt sorry for the idiot.

"No! And why does everyone make my g lowercase? It's very demeaning. What, the Christian God is the only one allowed to have a capital G? Right, because that's fair," Veles spat out, sneering at the three stunned men in front of them, whilst Loki just rolled his eyes. He was going to hear about this now for the next bleeding month. "No, I'm Veles, God of the Magical Races. I have my own race of people, and your little war that you've got going on? Not gonna affect us in the least. However, Loki here…"

Loki glanced at Veles out the corner of his eyes, wondering what he was about to say or do. Something that was probably going to get him back for his impromptu prayer.

"You do know he's not called Loki, right? That he's been lying to you if he told you his name was Loki," Dean told Veles with spite and malice in his voice, Loki rolled his eyes whilst Veles gasped with mock pain and clutched his heart. Turning to look at Loki with wide eyes.

"Lo! You lied to me all this time? How could you? I thought we had something!" Veles wailed, and Loki was all but considering snapping up an OSCAR right there. "I am now going to hide in a dark room and – wait, oh! You mean the whole archangel thing? Please, he told me that in eighteen eighty-three! Sorry to disappoint."

"V-Veles. Why are you here?" Castiel finally asked, a little timidly, clearly still fearing that he was about to be wiped from existence. Or one of his little human hunters was. Actually, Loki was beginning to wonder that as well.

"Loki _prayed_ to me," Veles told them, shooting Loki an unimpressed glare when he said it, "I came to help him. I will drop anything, within reason, should he need me," Veles told Castiel, and Castiel's head jerked up to look at the two with wide eyes. Loki knew that Castiel had finally heard the implications in that.

"How are things in France going, by the way? Given you're here, I'm going to guess that they've stopped killing each other off," Loki said, getting a little fed up that everyone seemed to have forgotten about him and had taken to talking like he wasn't there. That just wasn't how things were meant to go.

"They were signing the peace treaty when I left them," Veles told him with a small shrug, wrinkling his nose as a clear show of what he thought of the whole thing. It amused Loki how much Veles disparaged and seemingly hated his people, yet at the same time, would hurt anyone that tried to kill them.

"Wait, there hasn't been a war in France for quite a while now! What are you talking about?" Sam asked, interrupting the conversation between Veles and Loki, and getting a bored look from Veles that made even Loki feel stupid for the question.

"My people are hidden from you. Well, most of them are. You get the odd moronic vampire or werewolf that comes out of hiding. Though all that magic I shoved into the lands over here those years back seemed to have, er..." Veles paused and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, then shrugged. "Seems to have messed with them a little. Whoops. I _did_ tell them that America was out fo bounds for a reason! It's their own fault. Oh! Octi had some babies!"

Loki jumped slightly at the spastic topic change, then took a weary step back, narrowing his eyes at Veles. "Really? Are they just as… creepy as their mother?"

"Father, I made it a male. I don't know how it reproduced. Odd. Though, they don't glow, so maybe he just molested from poor non-magical octopus," Veles theorised, and Loki snorted, noting the bewildered looks on the faces of the other three. Veles also noticed, and sighed, looking at them. "Now, you three are going to leave. Gabriel no longer belongs to your God, I've stolen him. And, Castiel, your father doesn't mind."

"What?" Dean's confused question wasn't answered in the wake of their complete shock when Veles just stepped through the fire without a worry and placed a hand on Loki's shoulder, squeezing gently.

"Lovely talking to you, good luck with that Lucifer problem you've got. See you around maybe. Should you survive, I mean," Veles told the stunned trio, then dragged Loki through the shadows and into Veles' realm.

* * *

"_I can see—__" Gabriel wished he could see, just so that he could find out why there was a pause, then a throat was cleared… sheepishly if Gabriel thought about it. "Sorry. Still, yours are somewhat more… imaginative than mine." _

"_That's because I'm made of Awesome and you're a douche." Gabriel wished he could laugh. And he wished he could understand why he ached for the second, younger sounding voice. Maybe this was Purgatory. Or just Hell._

* * *

**Nineteen Months Earlier**

Loki sat at a large table, which according to Veles was a top of the range 'move the little horsey over here' battle planning table, but was currently covered in various magazines with bizarre and unusual claims. He was joined by one of Veles' ankou, the 'part-time' one, who claimed he worked part-time because he resided over the America's and hardly anyone who lived there followed Veles. Thus, he wasn't needed. Loki and Julian had, however, bonded over the pranking of the Winchester brothers at the Mystery Spot.

Right now, however, Loki was sitting with Julian (who had bemoaned about no one dying and lazy hunters for an hour before Veles allowed him into his back office to talk to Loki), both going over plans for the next couple of people Loki was going to hit, whilst Veles was reading through 'The Book of Souls' which was actually more likely called 'the book that Veles can keep a track on all his Creations and make sure he doesn't accidentally wipe them all out because he forgot to feed them over the weekend' or something. Loki thought that, though unoriginal, 'The Book of Souls' sounded much better.

"Lo." Loki looked up from what he was reading through when Veles called out to him, and frowned when he saw a slightly pained look on the God's face.

"Yeah? Vel, you alright?" Loki asked, pushing away from the table to move over to where Veles was standing, book held loosely in his hands.

"No, I've got to go, Lo. Something is kicking off in France. If you need me though, just call for me. You know how. I don't think it'll take too long though. At least, I hope it doesn't," Veles muttered and Loki mirrored the frown that crossed Veles' face, wondering if his partner was going to be okay. Veles then turned to Julian and narrowed his eyes at the attentive being. "You are to stay here. I'll have three ankou with me, so you just need to stick around and carry on doing what you do."

"Same goes for you, Vel. If you need me, just call me," Loki told him softly, placing a hand lightly on Veles' arm and squeezing, before letting go when Veles nodded and left the realm. Loki sighed, brushed his fingers through his hair, then turned to face Julian who just looked wary. "S'up?"

"You don't know, do you? Or realise at least," Julian asked, head tilting to the side in confused curiosity, though none of the wariness left.

"Know what?"

"Huh. We're in the Underworld of Veles. Without Veles. In His office. Does that mean anything at all to you, other than Lord Veles just left us?" Julian asked him and Loki shrugged, he really had no clue where the ankou was going with this.

"So? What are you trying to say?" Loki asked, when Julian just gaped at him.

"You're in charge when He's not down here. No one, other than Charon, has been left in here alone once Lord Veles left the entire Underworld."

"Nah, I've been down here on my own loads of times. Heck, I hid down here for almost six months during the forties," Loki said, dismissing Julian's claim as a flight of fancy. Veles had once mentioned their relationship, but Loki would have surely remembered being told something like this.

"You are the chosen consort of Lord Veles. He won't call you it, probably won't refer to you as such, because you're a god in your own right. But all the same, whilst Veles is not down here, but you are, then you are the acting Lord of the Underworld."

"Huh. Kinda scary. What can I do?" Loki asked, moving to sit at the table opposite Julian, who rolled his eyes.

"Everything. Anything. Though, I don't think I'd recommend really doing anything. Beloved Consort or not, Lord Veles will feed you to the Cait Sith if you mess with anything," Julian warned, and Loki looked at him, then huffed and conceded the ankou was probably right.

"Fine, I won't make any changes or order anyone around. You know, the Asgard didn't trust me to make changes either. I feel a little discriminated against."

"You should. Everyone discriminates against you, Lord Loki," Julian muttered, clearly not actually listening to what he was agreeing with as he became absorbed in whatever he was reading.

"Fine, fine. Whatever. Shall we get back to planning our mini-reign of terror on those deserving punishment?" Loki asked, pulling a new magazine towards him and opening it on a random page.

"Would it not be 'divine punishment', given you are a god?"

"Sure, call it that," Loki muttered, then smirked at the story he was reading as an idea began to bloom.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

_Gabriel had no idea what was happening to him. He was still considering the fact that he was in Hell or Purgatory. He wouldn't have been surprised given the things he had done as his time as Trickster, but he couldn't help but wonder if this was the worst it was going to get. Or if this was just a warm up. It didn't help that the voices had stopped talking and were no longer providing him with a distraction. No matter how bittersweet that distraction was. Gabriel mentally sighed and wondered if boredom was now his punishment._

* * *

**Three Months Earlier**

"This is a little odd, you have to admit that. I mean. I like _Groundhog Day_ as much as the next guy, but really? And why do you need me?" Veles asked, making Loki grin at him when he huffed and pouted, both sitting in the diner that Sam and Dean had decided to have their breakfast in. Personally, Loki thought his idea was genius.

"You're a God of Death too, right? So you can take his soul down before my father or anyone else from up top notices that I'm fucking with the Winchesters," Loki pointed out calmly, ignoring the venomous stare Veles was shooting him.

"Dexter Hasselback, he was passing through town last week when he vanished." Loki absently heard Sam say, which was quickly followed by a mournful sigh from Veles, and made Loki beam with utmost unholy joy when he realised what that meant.

"By the way, can I let Dex out yet? His whining is driving Ira up the wall. It's driving me up the wall as well, actually. If only because when he whines, Ira whines at me. Have you ever heard an ankou whine? They have had years to learn the most annoying ways to do that. Ira can now make a monosyllabic word have fifteen syllables. I know. I counted. Please let me let him out," Veles hissed, which just made Loki snicker before he shook his head.

"Nope, he's got to stay there for a while. Besides, you know he'll only be there for all of the days we will be reliving," Loki pointed out in what he hoped was a persuasive tone, not that he had any doubts he couldn't get Veles to cave to pretty much anything he asked.

"Oh, well when you put it that way, let's throw a bloody party," Veles grumbled before he stole the syrup from Loki and poured it into a glass, Loki then watched in horrified fascination when Veles then proceeded to pour three straws of sherbet into the glass and slowly stirred it with his finger.

"Your sugar habits put mine to shame. I look like a diabetic compared to your daily intake of sugar," Loki pointed out, throwing the sugary concoction a disturbed and disgusted look.

"Hmm. Possibly. Now, what are you going to do because they're leaving?" Veles pointed out to him, which made Loki jerk in his seat and turn to watch the brothers leave the diner.

"Shit, right, come on, you've got a temporary soul to collect," Loki whispered to Veles, who made a small noise of shock.

"What? _Now?_ Give them time to see the damned Mystery Spot! I put a lot of damned effort in that place! Do you know how hard it is to glue a table to a ceiling? Very is the answer. Especially when your fucking partner just decides to fanny about with your swirls," Veles spat at him, and Loki felt himself pale as he considered just how much Veles actually had done for him, and what the God would do _to_ him if he pissed him off too much.

"Fine, they can see the Mystery Spot. Come on. Oh! I know how to kill him!" Loki exclaimed, quickly getting over his fear of imminent death when he realised just what he could do to the Winchesters first. Really, this idea was awesome.

* * *

"Wow, uncanny." Loki glanced to the side to see Veles' reaction to Dean's sarcastic retort about his 'masterpiece' and wasn't disappointed to see the angry, barely restrained disgust in his volatile lover's expression.

"Kill him," Veles hissed, and Loki snickered but nodded his head and snapped his fingers, making the 'owner' appear, deciding it was within his best interest really to not piss Veles off even more.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Julian the ankou, who had decided to go by the name as Mr Carpiak during his stint as the owner of the place, exclaimed loudly, glaring at the two shocked hunters, before he then apparently 'noticed' the two guns being aimed at him and shot them a fearful, alarmed look.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. We can explain," Dean said, quickly putting his gun away when he saw that it was a civilian he was aiming at. Or at least, what he assumed was a civilian.

"You robbing me?" Julian asked them, voice managing to sound both incredulous and scared, Loki had to give it to Veles for choosing this particular ankou for the job, though apparently he wasn't doing all that much anyway. Apparently reaping business was slow in the Americas when less than one percent of your followers lived there.

"He's a very good actor. I'm glad you chose him," Loki muttered in Veles' ear, then rolling his eyes when his comment caused Veles to smirk smugly at him.

"Oh he's very well trained. Julian, shoot him," Veles whispered as they watched Dean start to put his gun down. Loki saw Julian discreetly nod his head to his master's order, before he fired his own gun, seemingly accidentally. Loki then nudged Veles, who glared at him before stepping out of the shadows for Dean's now detached and soon to be departed (temporarily) soul to see him.

"Dude! He shot me! I'm… is this me dead? Am I dead? I had months left! I'm not supposed to die now!" Dean exclaimed, watching Sam hugging his body to himself. Loki allowed himself to feel a small amount of guilt for a second, before he squashed it, deciding this was far too much fun to actually feel guilty about.

"Oi, you, shut it and come with me. Bloody stupid idea. Relax, I'll be bringing you back soon enough. Just need to ferry your soul away before someone notices that shouldn't," Veles snapped, making Loki flinch at the underlying promise of pain once this was over, and Dean to spin around and face Veles with a shocked look on his face.

"Who are you?"

"Doesn't matter. Come on." Loki heaved a small, silent sigh of relief when Veles then dragged Dean's soul to his Underworld before anyone sensed the Vessel of Michael passing on. He then glanced at the sobbing younger Winchester, smothered the guilt once more and clicked his fingers.

* * *

Loki would openly admit that he had made a lot of people die in the most unusual of ways during his time as a Trickster, but what he had come up with in his past held nothing to what he and Veles came up with when they worked together. Plus, Loki would concede that Veles had seen a heck of a lot more death than he had, even though he was less than five centuries old.

He really did enjoy seeing Dean Winchester get flattened by a desk, but even Veles admitted to slowly running out of ideas by the time they had killed Dean thirty times. So they decided to go with a couple of classics and see if anything came to them whilst killing Dean in random, seemingly innocent ways.

Like now.

Loki watched Sam muttered under his breath about Asia playing, which was pretty much the same thing Veles was screaming mentally to him. And something neither he nor Dean could understand, and really that similarity right there should have worried him, and was possibly the cause for making Dean slit his throat with his razor the previous 'day'. Still, Sam wasn't paying any attention to his brother, and had decided that they should stay in the motel room as 'what could happen in a motel room?'. Dean, on the other hand, had just started the shower in the bathroom.

Loki turned to look at Veles, who glared at him but rolled his eyes and walked into the bathroom to follow Dean, whilst Loki moved to stand in the doorway so that he wouldn't miss anything.

And clicked his fingers.

With a startled yelp and a crash, Dean fell in the shower and broke his neck. His confused and somewhat weary soul looked at his body and then to Veles, who looked equally as weary.

"You said you'd show me that river thing with all the dirty souls next time we went down there," Dean pointed out, and Loki felt he should also be concerned that though when alive, Dean didn't remember any of this, once dead, his soul did.

"I did indeed. Though I may have to snap you up some clothing. Not that I want to cover that piece of living art. Really, you were most certainly blessed, weren't you?' Veles muttered, leering openly at Dean, who just gaped back before covering himself up.

"Oi! Take him down before Azri notices a soul that belongs to his lot that hasn't been collected. And stop leering!" Loki snapped, refusing to admit that he was jealous. Though really, he knew there was a reason Dean rubbed him up the wrong way.

The only reason that same hatred didn't pass over to the other Winchester was because Sam was way too tall for Veles.

He hoped.

* * *

Okay, both Loki and Veles would fully own up that they had run out of ideas when they made Dean die from a poisoned taco. Really, they scraping the bottom of the barrel, but Loki didn't think it was time to end it yet, he didn't think Sam quite understood why they were doing what they were doing.

Though Veles repeatedly admitted that _he_ didn't honestly see what they were doing either. No matter how many times Loki calmly explained that Sam needed to see he could survive without Dean, and that Dean's death was inevitable so to stop trying to prevent it. Veles would then just point out the flaws to the whole thing, which made Loki sulk.

So they'd agreed not to talk about it. Just as they'd agreed that they wouldn't kill Dean via taco ever again.

"I didn't even know souls _could_ throw up," Loki stated in his defence when Veles and Dean had returned from whatever it was they did in the Underworld, and Loki restarted the whole process.

"Neither did I. Never again, Loki, never again," Veles hissed at him, before he began to mutter under his breath that he'd never get the smell of vomit out of his robes. Loki felt it prudent not to laugh at that. He valued his life a little too much.

* * *

Loki had no idea where Veles was going with this one, but the God had sworn he had had the best idea ever for Dean's next death, so Loki had decided to go with it. Thus, it was starting to get fairly late into the night and Sam and Dean were creeping around the judge's house after Dean had claimed he had a funny feeling about the guy.

"I have no idea where you are going with this," Loki muttered as he and Veles silently and invisibly followed the two brothers up the stairs of the rather opulent house.

"I found something out about the good old judge a couple of Tuesdays back, and well… this is going to be brilliant!" Veles whispered back excitedly, and Loki felt his own excitement begin to build, wondering what it was about the judge that made Veles sporadically giggle like a school girl.

Loki turned to look at the brothers when Veles cackled and nudged his side sharply. Sam held a finger to his lips when he looked at Dean, then pushed one of the doors in the hallway open upon Dean's signal.

The resulting chaos of the two men entering a room in which the judge was dressed up like a giant bunny, was a memory that Loki would carry with him for centuries to come. It ended when Sam flailed wildly at the judge to try and explain what he and Dean were doing there, whilst Dean gaped at the fully grown man dressed as a rabbit. Unfortunately for Dean, it was Sam's flailing that was his downfall this time.

"Timberrrr," Veles whispered with a maniacal little giggle at the end, as they both watched Sam hit Dean in the head, knocking Dean off balance and causing him to fall backwards over the banister.

"Dean!"

"I'll go collect Deany-boy, shall I?" Veles said, the smug grin on his face telling Loki that he was very proud of his idea. Loki had to, grudgingly, agree.

* * *

Fine, Loki would admit that he was starting to get a little bored in repeating Tuesday over and over, but he would also follow that admission with the fact that Sam clearly hadn't learnt the lesson they were trying to drive through to him.

But Loki did think that Veles had a good argument. He was rather fond of his balls, perhaps he would only kill Dean a handful more times and then just admit defeat.

"Really? Mauled by a dog? Your dad warned you from a very young age, to not trust monsters and shit, but he overlooked the whole 'don't stroke strange dogs' rule? Well, you can blame this death on him then. Guilt free death. Go you." Loki snickered as he watched Veles scold the sheepish, and confused looking soul of Dean.

"Er…"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Come on. Let's go, Charon wanted to ask you something about shtriga's. Why he can't ask me is beyond my knowledge. Freakish little Gate Keeper."

"He's called Charon," Dean pointed out, and Loki snorted, still baffled that Dean's soul retained all of his memories, just as Sam had.

"I know, just makes him even more freakish. You know, he's not even Greek! I nabbed his soul in Romania!" Loki watched in amusement as Veles took Dean to the underworld, bemoaning about weird, clearly unhinged Gate Keeper's and ankou. He waited until he could no longer sense either one, before he looked at Sam frantically calling out for his brother to wake up, and clicked his fingers.

* * *

"Again? You do know this is exhausting for me, right? I feel like a bloody yoyo. Back and forth, back and forth. Just… keep him dead or leave him alone. Sure, it was amusing the first ten times, Loki, but for crying out loud, a hundred and nine? I'm knackered. Let me rest. Let him stay alive for a few more hours, yeah? Please?" Veles pleaded, and Loki cringed, not too sure on how to answer, given Dean was aimlessly heading straight for the open manhole already.

"Er…" Loki flinched when he watched Dean fall down the manhole, and nudged Veles to point it out.

"Oh for fucks sake. Be back in a minute," Veles groaned and walked over to grab Dean's soul to take it back down to the Underworld. "Oh no, don't worry, you'll be back with Sammy in no time. Yep. Won't be for long, but you'll be back. Just… can you not eat any tacos this time? The trip the last time you did that was a little nasty."

"You're a doll, Veles!" Loki called out after Veles, wincing slightly at the venomous glare Veles shot his way.

"Yeah, yeah! Can't have Daddy-Dearest find out what you're doing with his saviour, can we? Fucktard." Loki conceded that he possibly deserved that, then shrugged and snapped his fingers.

* * *

"Oh God. I'm exhausted. It's all well and good for you, but me? And let's not mention that Julian is now a little traumatised. He's an ankou. Do you know how hard it is to traumatise an ankou?" Veles asked as he settled on to the stool next to Loki in the diner.

"Is it bad that I'm getting bored?" Loki asked, sighing and waving for the waitress to come over. And he really was, Sam didn't look to be learning the lesson any time soon, and Loki had never liked it when a lesson/prank was taken past the point of amusing.

"No. I'm bored. I was bored seventy-eight Tuesdays ago. Please let it be Wednesday tomorrow." Veles muttered darkly, and Loki huffed, sighed and then glanced over at where the Winchester's were sitting.

"I don't know…" Loki trailed off, sure he was getting bored with it, but he really didn't want to have to go to any awkward family reunions any time soon, so he _had_ to succeed in this.

"Lo, if you don't do it, then I will. And you know that our magics have this strange affect when they are in collision with one another," Veles warned and Loki looked at him with wide eyes, remembering with great detail just how much their magic didn't mix well.

"Right. Time to end it then? Don't want it to be 1979 when we next wake up," Loki said with a forced smile.

"At least it'd be a Wednesday," Veles muttered, Loki just ignored him and waved the waitress over.

"Miss, can we have strawberry syrup with this please?" Loki asked the waitress, who nodded her head and then walked off to place their order. He decided to agree to Veles' wishes, preferring not to mess with time completely.

"Thank you. I've never loved you so much, as I do at this point. Now, I'm to make myself scarce," Veles muttered when he noticed Sam and Dean sit down at their usual table. "Try not to get killed this time, okay?"

"They can't kill me!" Loki hissed at him, pouting. Veles snorted and rolled his eyes, then squeezed Loki's hand and walked out of the café, making the first change for Sam to notice.

* * *

**Five and a half months later**

"This is cruel, Lo," Veles muttered softly as they watched Sam determinedly hunting Loki down to bring his brother back.

"I know. So let's end it. You know the plan?" Loki asked, turning to face Veles, ignoring the injured hunter behind them, unflinchingly stitching his own injuries.

"I know the plan. I'll meet up with you later. You owe me a lifetime of massages for this, and quite probably therapy for Julian," Veles added as an afterthought, and Loki winced at the thought of the poor ankou. Yeah, he probably would need therapy after this. So would Sam, quite possibly.

"You do know that he's going to think you're me, right?" Loki asked, just before Veles left him to set up a trap for Sam. Veles turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow, then smirked.

"He has no idea how to kill me, Lo. Don't worry about me," Veles told him softly, stepping up to Loki and gently running his hand over Loki's cheek, smiling at him reassuringly. "It's going to be fine, you know? Well, no, it's not, but I'm going to be fine, so snap your fingers and let's get this show on the road."

Loki smiled at him and jerked his head with a nod, before he snapped his fingers and the two tricksters set up the final part of Sam Winchester's lesson.

* * *

**Two Weeks Later**

"You do know that incest is illegal, ri-?" Loki arrived just in time to see Sam stab Veles in the chest with a wooden stake, making Veles stop mid sentence and stare down at the stake in shock. "Wha-?"

"I think you're the trickster! You were the one that killed my brother!" Sam yelled, making Veles look at him, and Loki noticed that Veles was beginning to pale and fade as his body on this plain lost blood. Loki couldn't help but notice with intrigue, that his lover's blood sparkled as the light caught it, he wondered if Sam would notice and what he would think about that. It certainly wasn't a characteristic of Tricksters.

"He's not me. But thanks for killing off my rival. He was beginning to annoy me." Loki stepped forward, deciding to speak up before Sam _did_ notice Veles' unusual blood type. Veles glared at Loki, making Loki mentally cringe and apologise, just before Veles' eyes rolled into the back of his head and he collapsed to the floor. His body faded away seconds later, only to appear, as Loki knew it would, either in Veles' own office, or at Charon's desk.

"Wh-what?" Sam spun to look at Loki, before glancing back at where Veles had been lying, a small pool of blood left behind being all the evidence left that it had happened.

"That, the guy you just stabbed and killed, was my rival. He was hustling in on my turf, so thanks for that," Loki said in a blasé manner that completely belied how he was actually feeling over seeing Veles die, even if it wasn't permanent. "So, you've been looking for me? What did ya want, Kid?"

* * *

**Back Six Months**

"I hate Asia. I hate being stabbed. I hate the Winchsters. I hate Tuesday. And I still have no idea what a 'Pig 'n a Poke' is. It certainly isn't what I learnt it to be," Veles muttered as they watched the Winchester's leave town with Dean alive and Sam not totally recovered from his six month stint alone. Loki couldn't help but hope and pray that Sam had learnt the lesson he and Veles had worked so hard to drive home. "And stop praying to me, you know I have no say over future events."

"Sorry. I keep forgetting you're my God now," Loki muttered, then frowned and looked at Veles. "What _is_ a pig in a poke then?"

"Something completely fucking useless. So… Sam and Dean. Now, shall we head on down to the underworld? Charon somehow got his greedy little hands on some vintage butterbeer. Ah, I haven't had that since I was a human. Who the fuck thought burning all recipes for that was was a good idea?I hope they are being tortured somewhere. Wankers."

"So Dean was eating useless?"

"Look, the American's mess with everything, including the English language apparently. Who the hell knows what Dean ate. It killed him at least three times in different ways though, so I don't think I will ever want to eat it."

"You have a point there."

"I always do, so come on, butterbeer!"

* * *

"_No, no, no, if you do that, then this part won't be right. Think about it… Where would this fit in if you made that like that?" Gabriel's consciousness jerked when he heard the voices start talking again. He wished, begged, prayed that he could remember the names of the owners of the voices. And why he felt he knew them. But the answers to both were staying just out of his grasp. He then wished he could cry in frustration. _

"_Ah, no, I understand now. Do you think I made the right decision in leaving?" Gabriel felt confusion flow through him at the older beings question, and wondered what the answer would be. _

"_I think… I think there comes a time when we have to leave. Right or wrong. It's the only option open to us. It was the only option open to you."_

* * *

**One Year Earlier**

"Okay, I still have no idea why you use that magazine for inspiration. Use your imagination, you've been doing this for millennia, why do you now need inspiration exactly?" Veles asked, sitting on the kitchen counter in their flat, which neither of them were actually paying the rent for, but their landlord didn't really care. Or know. Loki felt that that made everything fine and no illegal at all.

"Oh come on! Some of these are genius! Think about it! Alligator in the drains?" Loki exclaimed with a tap to the magazine in front of him, sitting at the breakfast bar, munching on a chocolate bar and pouring over the copy of _Weekly World News_.

Veles looked at him with an unimpressed glare, but then shrugged, "Uh huh. Fine, but one day we will pull the midget with the axe on some poor unsuspecting couple, broken down on an abandoned road. If you can create your favourite cliché, then so can I," Veles muttered, tapping at the large jam jar, which was full of water and had a strange cephalopod in it, only it glowed. Pink. Loki blinked, bit his lip, then caved and gave in to the urge to ask.

"What _is_ that, by the way?" Loki asked, glancing at the strange little creature, which turned and stared at him unblinkingly with its canary yellow eye. Loki shuddered and couldn't help but wonder what the hell Veles was on, and if he was possibly experiencing an acid flashback of some sort. He _knew_ Woodstock was a bad idea.

"I call it the Octopod," Veles told him proudly and cooing at the creature like a proud parent. Loki gaped when the 'octopod' actually turned and began to make a strange cooing noise back, and rubbed against the glass, where Veles' finger was. He had begun to notice just how odd his life had become since he had met Veles all those centuries ago. And that was saying something; given his 'adoptive parents' were giants.

"Octopod?" He had to ask. He couldn't _not_ ask. It was impossible to not ask.

"Yeah… well… octopus was already taken," Veles told him huffily, pouting and refusing to look up from the odd cooing creature.

"What does it do?" Loki asked, finding himself unable to drag his eyes away from the odd creature and really beginning to wonder about the whole acid flashback thing.

"Er… swim? Don't know. Isn't that teacher supposed to be taking his swan dive tonight?" Veles asked, and Loki knew he was changing the subject from his somewhat lacking new creation but allowed it anyway, plus Veles sort of had a point. He _did_ a trick to set up.

"He will indeed and of course, the unsuspecting janitor needs to be there to find the body. So I guess I need to actually go and pretend to be doing my job. How come you get to pretend to be the student and I'm a damned janitor?" Loki grumbled, grumpily moving from the table to actually look like he was getting ready to leave, and Veles began to snicker.

"Because you look like you're fifty and I am beautiful and youthful," Veles told him bluntly, before squawking when Loki glared at him and lobbed a Hershey's Kiss at his head.

"I do not look fifty! Mid-thirties at the most!" Loki hissed, glaring at Veles, who placed the jam jar on the counter next to him and picked up the chocolate instead. Loki watched, mentally regretting throwing the candy away.

"Uh huh, mid-thirties, you keep telling yourself that. You do know that you look like a cradle snatcher when we go out together, right?" Veles asked him with wide, innocent eyes and Loki decided that he hated the smarmy, youthful looking deity.

"You do not look that young! You're even pretending to be a mature student! You said you're twenty-eight!"

"Not the point. You're going to be late," Veles pointed out, glancing over at the clock and then back at the Trickster.

"I'm never late. Besides, he isn't going to throw himself out of the window without a little help, now, is he? So it's not gonna happen without me," Loki pointed out smugly, smirking at Veles, ignoring the real reason behind Veles' reminder.

"That was me hinting at you to leave," Veles pointed out with a pout.

"Oh, I know," Loki said with a wide grin on his face, and then he sighed and stood up. "You do have a point though. I'll head out then. What are you going to be doing, exactly?"

"Working on my octopod." Loki blinked slowly at the response, then shook his head and actually decided he didn't want to know what that would entail. Though there was one thing he thought Veles should do.

"Right. Well, maybe you should work on its name as well," Loki commented and then vanished from the room before Veles could retaliate. Veles could get very mean with his retaliation.

* * *

Loki mentally cackled when he saw just which hunters their tricks had brought the attention of. He'd wondered about the Winchester's ever since he had heard whispers of their names when they had been born decades before. He never actually thought they would ever try to hunt him however. Clearly his luck was beginning to pick up.

He'd sent Veles to the local student hang out to see if he could find out what the two brothers knew and suspected. And to see if they suspected either himself or Veles.

Unfortunately, that left him babysitting the Octopod… Which was staring at him unblinkingly with its creepy eye. Really, he needed to talk to Veles about making something normal and less weird looking as his next creation. No wonder the creatures in the magical world couldn't show their faces in the non-magical world.

* * *

"So? Do they suspect you? What do they think? What did they say? Well?" Veles asked, practically pouncing on Loki as soon as he walked in the door. Loki laughed and nudged past Veles to close the door behind him. He'd just returned from showing Sam and Dean Winchester around the office of the dearly departed professor of Morality. Which was one of life's greater ironies.

"They don't suspect me of a thing! This is brilliant! I say we do three or four more and then let them 'find me out'. You shouldn't be found out though. We might bump into them again, then it'll be your turn to mess with their heads! Oh, this is going to be fun. I haven't messed with a hunter for years!"

"We messed with those three hunters last year, Lo," Veles pointed out, and Loki waved him away absently, the three hunters from Edmonton didn't count.

"That doesn't count. So what do we do next?" Loki asked as he walked into the kitchen. He stalled slightly mid-step as he caught sight of the noticeably larger cephalopod that was now living in a large fish tank. He felt a small flash of alarm as he considered just how much it had grown in the past couple of days. "Should it be growing that quickly?"

"I've decided to make a kraken."

"Kraken were giant squid," Loki pointed out and then smirked when Veles huffed at him and turned his attention back to the octopod.

"Yes, well he's an octopod. Deal with it. Now, I say aliens. That's always amusing. And whilst you pick your next victim, I'll work on ways to break up the dream team," Veles said, with a positively evil smirk on his face that made Loki sort of feel sorry for the Winchester brothers for all of a second, before he considered what Veles has just said.

"Dream team?" It wasn't the most imaginative of names. He'd thought better of Veles.

"Sure, why not? Go on, shoo! I'd recommend that creepy jock. He needs taking down a peg or two," Veles told him, and Loki rolled his eyes, just wondering what said jock had done to make Veles gun for his mental breakdown.

"Of course, Dear," Loki muttered, grabbing his newest issue of _Weekly World News_ and beginning to flip through it. "Do you think aliens like ballroom dancing?"

"What? Maybe. Probably more slow dancing. You know, like to _Lady in Red_ or something," Veles commented lightly, and Loki nodded his head slowly.

"Chris DeBurgh it is then. Do you ever think we make things a little too surreal with out tricks at times?" Loki asked, pausing mid-click as the thought struck him, though given the incredulous stare Veles gave him, he was the only one who considered the possibility.

"Don't be stupid. Now, shoo, and don't forget the probing!"

* * *

Loki jumped when his phone began to ring in his pocket, and frowned, knowing that it had to be Veles, given they only had one another's numbers.

"Yeah?" Loki asked, holding the phone to his ear, whilst half-heartedly sweeping the floor.

"_Houston, we have a problem."_ Loki rolled his eyes at the sound of Veles' voice, suppressing the sigh he wanted to release.

"What have you done?"

"_Me? I haven't done anything! Look, the creepy hunting duo has called in back up. Someone older, wiser and er… kinda weird lookin'. Like… a trucker that has no truck, or love of roadside diner food, or indeed anything else truckery._"

"You do know you make no sense whatsoever, right? What the hell is wrong with you recently?" Loki had a brief and horrifying thought that maybe Veles could get pregnant, before hastily ignoring it and flushing at the embarrassing thought. Though Veles really was acting a little scatty recently.

"_Nothing, look, they've called in back-up, so… it looks like that last one was _the_ last one. For here anyways. They've pinned it on you, Lo. We didn't even need to nudge them in the right direction. So just pin up your favourite articles in your locker, lure them to wherever the hell you think would be a good idea and let them 'kill' you. I'll pack up and we can move on. Oh, and Octi has um… We should move somewhere near the sea," _Veles told him quickly and then hung up before Loki could answer. He pulled the phone away from his ear and looked at him for a few seconds, before cringing as he realised he really had to see what 'Octi' had turned into.

"Well shit. What the hell has he created now? Right, articles, candy and um… the auditorium." Loki muttered to himself, making the broom vanish with a snap of his fingers and then disappearing and reappearing in the locker rooms.

* * *

"How much _were_ you drinking when you came up with the whole stake thing? I mean, really?" Veles asked, appearing in the entrance to the auditorium moments after the three hunters had left. Loki stepped out of the shadows by the stage and smirked at him, before shrugging.

"A lot. So then, my feisty little Slav, where shall we go next?" Loki asked Veles, walking up to him and pulling him into his side.

"No idea. Where haven't we been for a while?" Veles asked, running his hands up and down Loki's chest as he looked up at him.

"Well, you did say it had to be near the ocean too, I can't believe you shoved that damned thing in our bath! And who isn't going to notice a giant, pink glowing thing?"

"Hmm, you are right. Maybe I didn't think this through. Oh well, nothing to do for it now. I'll shove it near Russia, they don't notice shit like that," Veles commented lightly. Loki just knew he was ignoring the incredulous stare he was sending him.

"They don't—you know what? I'm not going to ask. I've learnt that most of the time I just don't want to know," Loki muttered, shaking his head and wondering if he'd ever feel normal again.

"Ah good, took you long enough. So I have a question," Veles said tentatively, as he grabbed Loki's hand and apparated them to their apartment. A motion that Loki would never get used to, no matter how many times he was forced to participate.

"Shoot. Though not literally. I know you, you'd take that as an opening to shoot me with something. And it'd hurt," Loki said with a pout, ignoring the insulted look Veles shot him.

"What? No it does not! Stop being a baby. Besides, I'm not going to shoot you. I _am_ going to ask why you are so interested in the Winchester's however. And don't deny it. If you weren't, we'd have left as soon as they entered the town. So tell me why they are so intriguing to you," Veles demanded, narrowing his eyes at the Trickster and making Loki shift uncomfortably.

"Ah, it's er… you know that horrible feeling that you and all the other gods and goddesses have been feeling? Well… it's them. Those two. They're vessels," Loki blurted out in one breath, wincing and looking around the room at anything just so long as he could avoid Veles' narrow-eyed gaze.

"Vessels? Those two? Who? Who are the somewhat unlucky angels that will have to use those bodies? I mean, both are very handsome but well… neither one has enough common sense between them to fill a teaspoon," Veles pointed out, and Loki chuckled before grinning brightly at him.

"Oh, that's mean. I like it," Loki said with a grin, before flinching when Veles glared at him. "Fine, Michael and Lucifer. Happy? Come on, we need to go before Mikey comes to investigate who said his name."

"He's a bit of a 'tard if he feels he has to see the reason someone uses his name. For one, it's one of the most popular names of western society and two he's a bloody archangel, chances are people are going to use his name at least once in their life. Moron," Veles muttered, but he still followed Loki as they walked through the flat, checking to make sure they hadn't left anything behind.

"Well yes, Mikey isn't the most intelligent of my brothers. All brawn and no brain, that one. Shame. My father clearly isn't completely without fault," Loki told him, nose wrinkling as he said it, and shaking his head mournfully. Veles just snorted and then vanished from the apartment to head to their next destination, Loki following behind him

And to drop Octi into the Baltic.

* * *

"_Sometimes I'm ashamed of what I caused." Gabriel 'frowned' at that and wondered, not for the first time, what was going on. _

"_Sometimes shame is all we have left."_

* * *

**Seven Years Earlier**

"Why are we here? I hate this place. No, really, why? To that matter, why is everyone else here as well? Seriously, you can't move for all the damned Christians, Hindu's and Muslims. Where are the Pagans when you need them?" Loki snickered quietly at the scandalised look the woman next to them shot them, before hurrying off whilst Veles sneered at her back and went back to his bitching.

"Everyone's here for the same reason we are. There are none of your followers here because you banished them from this country and well, there might be pagans around but they don't exactly have a flashing sign over their head proclaiming 'I'm a pagan, ask me how' do they?"

"They should. It would make it a lot easier to know who we can talk to without wanting to leave and throw up at the random crap they wish to tell us about whatever god they are following at the time. It gets quite tiresome when you realise that no one you are talking to has any idea of who you are, even when you tell them your real name," Veles muttered, dodging a family of four as they passed him, sneering at the screaming child as it passed. Loki grabbed Veles' hand to stop him cursing the child or something.

"Your religion is a little exclusive, unless someone can make themselves turn into a rabbit by sheer will or something, you don't give them a second thought," Loki pointed out, feeling quite reasonable to do so. Given the look on Veles' face however, he was the only one that did think so.

"I give them the damned powers. And they can turn into things other than rabbits, you know. I don't have a whole legion of followers that turn into rabbits on random occasions. Though, that could actually be rather disturbing," Veles said musingly, and Loki groaned silently, wondering what affect this was going to have on Veles' next creation. The thought was actually quite horrifying.

"Fine, fine. Anyway, the reason we're here is because I thought it would be nice to celebrate."

"Celebrate what?" Veles asked, finally giving Loki his full attention and stopping with the mental smiting of the surrounding humans.

"Well, in a couple of hours, we'll be greeting the new millennium. It's your first one. Thought it'd be nice to celebrate. Plus, it was three hundred years ago that we first met. Ah, you all naïve and innocent in your wrathful Godliness. You were hot."

"You were drunk," Veles retorted dryly, and Loki didn't even bother trying to deny it. He really had been.

"Your people sure know how to make good alcohol," Loki said with a dreamy sigh, considering actually molesting Veles in front of everyone around them when the God snickered and handed him a flask with some sort of magical alcohol in it. "You are amazing, you know that."

"I know. I also know that you're probably actually speaking to the contents of that hipflask, but I'm going to delude myself into thinking that it's me you're talking to," Veles told him breezily, and Loki grinned mischievously, before taking a deep swig of the liquid.

"Aw, I love you. Don't be pissy. Here, have whatever I have just burnt my throat away with! It'll make you forget all of life's troubles," Loki said with a wide grin, feeling the affects of the alcohol already, and deciding to go with it instead of suppressing it.

"Fine. Gimme," Veles muttered, holding out a hand for the flask, before hissing in anger at the man that ploughed in to him and almost made him drop said flask. "Moron! I should smite you down! Smite you down good and proper!"

Sighing, Loki grabbed Veles' elbow and tugged him away from the now baffled looking man, who would quite possibly try to beat them up once he got over the fact that some angry British midget had threatened to 'smite him good'. Snorting and shaking his head, he tugged on Veles until the man followed behind him, still muttering under his breath, and he took them further into the crowd and nearer to the ball.

Two hours later, and the crowd counted down as the ball was lowered and Loki turned to face Veles, grinning at the raised eyebrow.

"What?"

"Happy New Millennium!" Loki exclaimed brightly, flinging his arms around Veles' shoulders and pulling him into a hug, before pulling back slightly and kissing the stunned God on the lips, groaning when Veles opened his lips seconds later.

"Happy New Millennium. Same place next century?" Veles asked him, once they had pulled away, though they were still close enough that Loki felt Veles' lips brush against his as he spoke.

"Of course. It can be our new place to celebrate, considering that awesome bar from previous centuries has disappeared," Loki said, feeling a small amount of sadness as he thought about the pub he had met Veles in.

"It hasn't disappeared. It's still there, just no one else is there," Veles told him calmly, and Loki swore he could hear a mirroring echo of sadness in his tone.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

"_It is a beautiful country." Gabriel was truly confused. Country? Where were they? Where was _he_?_

"_It is. There are times that I only truly feel safe and comfortable here. This is… this is my home, I guess." Gabriel felt a sudden flash of longing and regret shoot through him, and had he had breath to loose, he'd have been left breathless. _

"_Maybe I should think about finding a new home." _

"_You're not going back then?" Back where? Gabriel hated feeling so… alone and ignored. He couldn't get shake the niggling feeling of disappointment of himself. And the frustration of not being able to do anything other than hear two voices he only vaguely recognised was just making it all magnify. _

"_Not yet."_

* * *

**Twenty-Six Years Earlier**

"So who do we prey on in this disturbing country. It's making me twitchy by the way. Ugh. Can you feel the twisted magic? I hate demons, you know. This place is riddled with the slimy little bastards," Veles muttered, making Loki snort in amusement and look at him with a raised eyebrow.

"So we avoid those then. Hunters?"

"Hunters could be fun to mess with. They always seem to get above their station in the end, cocky little wankers."

"Right, well where should we stick to then? Most hunters tend to stay away from larger cities, so maybe those ones are out…" Loki commented lightly… tapping a finger against his chin in thought, then looking at Veles when the God grinned mischievously.

"University towns! Think about it! Even if no hunter is there, we will still have the student morons to pray on! And if something weird catches the attention of a hunter or two, then double-whammy! I say University towns! Plus, there are hundreds of them! It's perfect!" Veles exclaimed excitedly, and Loki had to admit that he had a point.

"University towns it is then. Which one first?"

"Yale."

"Why?"

"It's the only one I know?" Veles admitted with a shrug, making Loki look at him and then snicker.

"Yale then."

* * *

"_Why'd you agree to help me with this?" Gabriel wanted to scream at them. Demand them to tell him what was going on. Tell him what was _wrong_ with him._

"_He was the only one that truly understood what I was doing. Why I did what I did. It helps that I also like and respect you." _

"_Huh. That's new."_

* * *

**Eight Years Earlier**

Loki fidgeted next to Veles where they were both sitting, waiting patiently – in Veles' case, not so much his own case – in the small cottage in Moscow. Apparently the first house that Veles had actually ever owned as a God. Not that Loki was entirely sure a God _owned_ anything in the same way that a human would. Veles certainly hadn't paid for it, that was for sure.

Still, they were waiting for Loki's Father to come. And Loki really just wanted to hide away and never consider what it was that Veles had spent the last three years working towards, if only because Loki felt somewhat uneasy. The only thing that actually made him feel at all fine about the entire situation, was the snide little voice in the back of his mind telling him that, in all fairness, his Father had abandoned him first.

"He's here," Veles murmured, attention still held on whatever he was doing and had been doing for the past three days. Loki still hadn't quite managed to ask what it was, but he thought it looked strangely like Veles was holding on to his threat from all those years ago about bringing back the Dodo. Apparently a magical one, just so he wasn't accused of plagiarism. Loki wasn't sure plagiarism of creations was really a concern for most Gods, but didn't feel it was his place to point that out.

"What?"

"Your father. He's here." Loki twitched violently when Veles looked up at him with a wide smile, making the half formed creature disappear from the table with a small wave of his hand. Loki turned to face the door, jumping slightly when Veles placed a hand over his own. "Sheesh, calm down. Not like he's gonna smite you. He'd have done that when I brought it up three years ago if he was going to."

"Not really helping."

"Well, I tried." Loki huffed when Veles just shrugged and then stood up to open the door when there was a knock on it. Loki seemingly had found himself frozen to his seat. He looked up when Veles walked in, followed by his Father wearing a shockingly bright pink shirt and clashing acid green flared trousers.

"Huh, really embracing the hippy thing," Loki said pointedly, not able to take his eyes off of the trousers and having the absent thought that maybe he would go blind and that green would be the last colour he saw. It wasn't a pleasant thought.

"I thought I could brighten things up a little. Veles seemingly never goes anywhere without that cloak, and you have this strange love for beige. Which would make me wonder if you were adopted, had I not created you," God said, taking a seat opposte the couch Loki was currently frozen to. Veles snorted in amusement and sat down next to Loki, pinching the back of his neck and causing Loki to give a small yelp as he jumped, glaring at Veles.

"What was that for?"

"I was worried you were going to break something, what with the tension you were giving off. It was alarming," Veles told him, his flat tone giving away that he actually hadn't given much of a damn at all. The sound of his Father's booming laughter made Loki jerk back to giving Him his attention.

"I like you, Veles," God told Veles, getting a smirk from said man. Loki just sighed and slumped in his seat with a shake of his head.

"Good to know. Is that going to work in our favour then? I'm assuming you have come to depart your decision with us. Either that, or yet another random, somewhat vague and highly dangerous task for me to accomplish. Really? Creating Atlantis the underwater city of merpeople wasn't enough for you?"

"That was a stroke of genius on my behalf. How are they going, by the way?"

"Oh, you know, so so. Iyarnach is thriving as the leader, so I feel safe in leaving him to sort everything out," Veles told Him, and Loki smothered the need to giggle hysterically at the utter bizarre situation he had found himself in. Really, he was sitting in a room with two powerful Gods, both with the ability to eradicate his being with barely a thought.

"That's good! I'd have felt a little bad had it not worked out, but I was running out of things to ask you to do to see just how far you'd go to get my approval," God admitted with not an ounce of remorse in his voice.

"Well, you've gotta do what you've gotta do. So? New task or _have_ you come up with a decision?" Veles asked. Loki straightened up in his seat slightly when his Father fidgeted and then sighed.

"I've come up with a decision." Loki gaped at his Father, and then closed his mouth an audible click, fidgeting slightly and not completely sure he wanted to know the answer.

"And?"

"I've caused you far too much pain in your existence to ever truly forgive myself of it. One step towards gaining a small bit of forgiveness, if only from myself, would be to agree to your request," God told them, and Loki blinked numbly, not too sure how to respond, "so, you're free. I'm not going to take your grace away from you, I'm just going to hand over control to Veles."

Loki choked on his surprise, feeling Veles fidget next to him and reaching out to grab his hand, "Does that mean – are you saying that I'm – what?"

"Gabriel, I'm telling you that I'm allowing you to completely cross over to Veles' religion. As of now, I no longer have any say in what you do."

"That's…" Loki trailed off, not actually sure what that was. He felt Veles squeeze his hand comfortingly, and looked over when Veles gave a small gasp.

"Oh now, angelic grace. That's certainly – wow, that's one hell of a buzz," Veles said in a breathless voice, making Loki snicker before looking over at his Father.

"Thank you."

"It was the least I could do for what I have put you through. I just hope your brothers will one day forgive me as much as you have."

"Dunno about that. Raphael's still a dick, after all," Loki pointed out. God sighed disapprovingly, but Loki saw his lips twitch in a suppressed smile.

"Perhaps so. Loki, I need to tell you that after I leave here you won't be able to find me again. Don't look for me, and don't hate me when I don't come should you call for me. I'm disappearing for a while," God said softly. Loki looked at him in shock, then turned to look at Veles, who looked just as shocked as Loki was feeling.

"What? Why?"

"I have my reasons, Loki. Just know that this isn't me abandoning you again, one of the reasons I'm doing this is to teach your brothers that they do have their own free will, even if they don't seem to believe so. Knowing that you have Veles to keep you grounded and safe is what makes this decision so easy. I'm sorry for disappointing you yet again, Loki, but you know this has to be done."

"Yeah but – Now?"

"When else should I do it? You'll be fine with Veles, you're no longer one of mine anyway, so you don't need me anymore. You'll be fine, Loki."

"Lo, you can't change his mind on this," Veles told him softly, moving to place his hand on Loki's shoulder. Loki sighed and nodded his head, looking away from Veles back to his Father.

"You're right, I'll be fine. Sorry for not being reasonable about this," Loki said, glancing down to look at his hands in his lap.

"Son, you have nothing to be sorry for. I'm glad you understand though," God told him, and Loki nodded his head, looking up when he sensed his Father stand, "Right, I'm going to leave you now. Remember, Loki, don't look for me. You won't find me."

Loki only had time to nod before his Father vanished from the room without a sound. Slumping, he turned to look at Veles, feeling his love for the man grow when he just silently reached across and pulled Loki into a hug.

"Well that sucked."

"Hmm," Veles agreed, nuzzling gently into Loki's neck and pressing a kiss there. "Lo? Welcome to the religion."

* * *

**Three Years Earlier**

Loki considered that his Father needed to work on His clues just a little. Seven years of finally working out what the bleeding hell He had meant when He had rambled on about 'finding the roots of the problem' and that Veles would found 'where it all began', which was total bollocks because Loki had already been to England and hadn't seen one hint of Veles.

So he'd gone by the other clue and he figured his Father would be quite literal in his meanings. Contrary to popular belief, God wasn't all that keen on philosophy and finding further meaning behind the words than is at first apparent. Really, He was more a 'what you see is what you get' kind of being, which explained humans.

Thus, going by the line of thinking, he really shouldn't have tried to work out just what the hell He'd meant by looking deeper into the meaning of the clue. He should have taken it by face value. It wouldn't have taken him seven years to find Veles had he done that.

It wouldn't have surprised him to find himself standing on the edge of a small forest when he had finally found Veles either. Silently cursing his Father for being so damned pedantic, then wincing at the mental flick to the forehead he got for his troubles, Loki took a deep breath and stepped forward.

The first thing he noticed was Veles standing next to two bodies, looking supremely pissed off and less glowy, more haggard than Loki even recalled seeing him. Loki viciously stamped down on the painful flash of guilt that shot through him upon that observation, just _knowing_ that it was quite possibly entirely his fault.

Not that he considered himself that important in the grand scheme of things – he'd like to think he was, but contrary to popular belief his ego wasn't quite that enormous – but given nothing truly terrible had happened since he'd last seen the man, and Veles hadn't even looked this bad when Hiroshima happened… Loki out the clues together. Had his ego been overly large, he'd probably have been able to blame it on someone else, actually.

He watched Veles' shoulders slump and knew the man had just sighed heavily, when he suddenly spun around, dark blue cloak whipping around his ankles as some sort of manifestation of the anger Veles apparently felt towards…

Well, Loki? Life? The world in general. Really, Loki wasn't sure and he was fairly positive that he didn't want to find out. Veles' shocked inhalation snapped Loki out of his worrying musings, and Loki toed the ground sheepishly, not entirely sure he knew what to say now that he had found Veles.

Seven years. He'd been searching for seven years.

Apparently, Gods were brilliant at hiding themselves from people searching for them. Loki was just lucky he had friends in freakishly high places. Or his Father was God. _The_ God. The being that created this whole universe. Sort of. He'd had help apparently. And wasn't _that_ an interesting conversation.

"What the hell are you doing here? Do you not need to run and hide?" Loki jerked up when Veles finally snapped at him, making him realise he'd been getting lost in his thoughts a little too easily since he'd ran from Veles. And that realisation made Loki flinch, cringing slightly when Veles quickly stormed past him, towards the forest. Veles had been right though, maybe it was about time Loki stopped running every time things got too much.

"No. Wait! Aw, come on, Vel! Don't be like that! Let me explain!" Loki pleaded as he hurried after the pissed off God. Though, admittedly, he made conscious effort not to be stray within reaching distance, should Veles spin around and try to punch him. He was delicate! Of course, he was well aware that had Veles truly wanted to hurt him, no distance on earth would have saved him.

Partly why he hid for so long in Helheim.

"You know, Kali warned me of you," Veles spat out at him. Loki flinched and was only partially thankful that Veles wasn't facing him and thus didn't see it. "Seems to think she should take me under her wing or something. She can be a little mothering sometimes. It's rather off-putting. Still, she warned me that you'd break my heart, assuming I have one to break. Safe to say that if I did, I don't have one anymore. Cheers for that," Veles muttered. Loki assumed he was following a trail through the thicket of trees, but Loki didn't actually know as he couldn't see anything. Veles' words penetrated through to Loki's mind and made him cringe as he felt like his insides were twisted at his guilt. Stumbling a little but managing to keep on his feet, he carried on following blindly behind Veles, absently giving a small prayer to his Father that Veles wasn't just leading him to somewhere discreet so he could kill him and hide his body somewhere He had the idea that a God, especially a God of _Death_ may not have a problem with killing him, with or without an archangel's sword.

"I didn't… I had a reason! I – can you just stop for a minute and let me speak! Christ!" Loki shouted, finally finding his voice and getting fed up of not being able to carry out a civilised conversation with Veles. Not that he thought he was capable of such a thing at that moment, but an attempt to try wouldn't have been sneered at.

"Did he exist?"

"Pardon?" Loki asked, gaping at Veles, who had stopped and turned to look at him curiously.

"Christ. Did he actually exist?" Veles asked him. Loki took a deep breath and just stared at the God steadily.

"Does it matter whether he did or didn't? Look, can we please go back to you place to talk? _Please_!" Loki begged, secretly hoping that his begging would distract Veles from sticking on the topic of Christ. If Loki was being completely honest with himself, even after all this time, his abandonment still left a bitter taste in his mouth. It hurt. Veles stared at him with narrowed eyes before nodding sharply, seemingly seeing some of that hurt still visible on Loki's face.

"Fine. Come," Veles told him shortly, spinning on his heel once more and leading the way deeper into the large trees.

"Where _are_ we?" Loki asked, after having followed Veles in silence for ten or so minutes.

"Socialist Republic of Macedonia."

"Okay… why?" Loki asked, feeling slightly confused as to why they were in a country that Loki couldn't ever think he'd actually been to before. If he had, he wasn't sober enough to remember.

"You'll see," Veles told him, and Loki swore he could hear the damn smirk in the God's voice. Loki sighed and carried on trudging through the bracken of the forest, cursing whenever he tripped on a root, or got caught, "wearing those ridiculous jeans won't help you any."

"You're wearing a damned cloak. I don't see you having any troubles." Loki stated petulantly. He was vaguely aware that he sounded like a small child that hadn't gotten its way, but he didn't care at this point.

"This is my forest. It won't try to stop me. You, on the other hand, have pissed me off, so why would it want to aid you and make this any easier for you?" Veles asked him, dry amusement evident in his tone. Loki scowled at the back of his head, then viciously kicked at one of the roots that looked to be reaching out to grab at him.

"Sure, laugh it up," Loki muttered, then frowned when he realised something that Veles had just said. "_Your_ forest? Where are we in er… Sooo…" Loki trailed off as he realised he had completely forgotten where they were.

"Socialist Republic of Macedonia."

"Right. There. Whereabouts there are we?" Loki asked, eyeing a suspicious looking branch that seemed to have been reaching out for him, before hurrying up to catch up behind Veles.

"Veles."

"I know your name," Loki muttered, scowl just deepening at Veles' seemingly pissy attitude. Not that he totally blamed the man, but still, he was trying here, it wasn't his fault he wasn't being given much of a chance.

"Do you? I had wondered. And I meant the name of where we are. We're just outside of Veles."

"You have a city named after you? How is that fair? I want somewhere named after me!" Loki huffed, still having no idea where he was, and willingly admitting, if only to himself, that he was now lost. And had been since he had finally found Veles.

"You do," Veles told him dryly, making Loki gape at the back of his head.

"Eh?" Loki finally choked out, surely he would have known if there was a place named after him. Admittedly, in Helheim there was a pit of despair named after him, he wasn't entirely sure what Hel had been trying to say when she had created that.

"There is a Gabriel Island near Canada," Veles informed him and Loki's nose wrinkled at his old name.

"_That_ name doesn't count," Loki grumbled, bitter taste forming in his mouth at just _hearing_ the name.

"Very mature. We're here," Veles said, coming to a stop in front of a positively ancient looking tree in the middle of the forest.

"And 'here' is? It's a tree," Loki pointed out, and then flinched when Veles glared at him venomously.

"It's _my_ tree. It grew when I was created. And is the main source of my magic. Tell anyone of this and I will hunt you down and drag you down to the very pits of my underworld with the last dregs of my magic," Veles informed him, making Loki's eyes widen in shock and then for him to nod his head furiously in agreement. He may be a very powerful archangel, but he willingly admitted to anyone that should ask, that Veles scared the shit out of him at times. He was pretty sure it was the glowing skin.

"Right. And we're here because…"

"I haven't been back here for over two centuries. I needed to come back to just… ground myself. I've been a little scatty and just… not very sympathetic to any of the souls."

"Because – is it? Was it—because of me?" Loki asked in a quiet voice, then jerked his head to look at Veles when the God snorted.

"No. Don't be so presumptuous. It was the wars. I lost any kind of belief in my people. Sure it was only really the muggleborns and half-bloods that truly joined the fighting. But it affected all of them. I didn't have any sympathy for the ones that died after that," Veles muttered, scowling at nothing and then placing his hand on the tree. His eyes closed and he gave a sigh of contentment that shocked Loki. It made him twitch with a need to touch the tree as well.

"So it's not my fault?"

"Oh no, I didn't say that. You abandoning me and then hiding and refusing to answer my calls just made it happen sooner than it possibly would have without your tender mercies," Veles muttered, eyes still shut and leaning on the tree. Loki eyed him and blinked as his skin began to glow even more than usual, and more than even some angels did. It was a touch creepy.

"Can I explain why I left and then hid? Before you condemn me to Hades or wherever it is the bad wizards and witches go."

"Hades is Greek. I just have my underworld. Each soul is treated equally no matter their actions. They all end up the same place. I don't give a damn what they really did in life, they ain't gonna be able to do anything once they're dead. And they get a clean slate once they are reincarnated. Prejudice isn't bred, it's learnt. The only thing at fault is circumstance. And no one can change that," Veles murmured and Loki raised an eyebrow at him.

"Interesting view on things."

"Interesting or not, I'm the be all and end all of my religion, so my view is the only one that counts. Right, I'm done. Let's go to my rooms. Then you can explain yourself. And a word of warning. You won't be getting any sugar until I am satisfied with your reason," Veles told him, and before Loki could even form an argument, Veles had dragged him down to his rooms.

* * *

_Gabriel felt fear flash through him when the voices he had been listening to for what seemed like a lifetime, started to dim and blur, like he was listening to them from under water. _

"_No! Don't let go of that!" And Gabriel heard no more._

* * *

**Seven Years Earlier**

"You know, I also sort of knew you were a coward, but you're my father, so I gave you the benefit of the doubt." Loki glanced up from where he was stroking one of the wolf cubs in Fenrir's pack to look at his giantess daughter, Hel.

"What's changed?"

"You hiding from Lord Veles down here for ten years," Hel told him bluntly, moving to sit down next to him and running a large finger gently over the cub's back, making it yip in pleasure as it wriggled in Loki's lap.

"You know, I remember Fenrir when he was this adorable. Didn't last long," Loki grumbled, hissing when the pup bit at his finger to get his attention.

"It shocks me that Fenrir was ever something other than…"

"Feral?"

"I was thinking mange-ridden, but feral works as well. Seriously, Father. Why are you still hiding down here? You're no longer in danger of Falling and to be quite honest, your moping is beginning to give me a headache. I don't _get_ headaches, Father, that's how annoying you are becoming. At the very least, go bother Sleip instead of me."

"And to think I was considering making you my favourite," Loki grumbled, tickling the cub's stomach and smiling weakly when it wriggled and tried to escape his fingers.

"Oh don't lie, everyone knows Sleipnir is your favourite. Well, everyone _but_ Sleip. Not that we care, he's our favourite too. For a supposed monster, he's freakishly adorable," Hel mused, and Loki nodded absently in agreement. She had a point; the eight-legged horse really was adorable. "So, how _did_ you end up giving birth to him? I don't think you ever told us?"

"Alright! Fine! I'm going! I'm leaving you be!" Loki told her hastily, wrapping his magic around him and leaving Helheim with a click of his fingers, Hel's laughter following behind him.

He steadied himself when he appeared where he had run to, looking around and sighing as he felt a sense of calm wash over him as soon as he saw Michelangelo's masterpiece. Really, the Sistine Chapel relaxed him like no other place on this planet.

"I knew you'd show up here eventually." Loki jumped and let out an embarrassingly high-pitched yelp, spinning round to see his Father standing behind him, smiling softly at him.

"Father! Um… what are you doing here?" Loki asked once he'd gotten over the shock of seeing his Father in front of him.

"I was waiting for you to come out of hiding so I could talk to you. I knew you'd come here first when you finally did," his Father explained with a small shrug, moving away slightly to stand at the side of the room, out of the way of all the tourists.

"Why did you want to speak to me?"

"Why do you think? I know why you fled in the first place, Gabriel," God said with a small sigh, and Loki blinked, not really knowing how else to respond. "Gabriel, son, I didn't ever doubt your faith in me, that was your doing. I never would have let you Fall, you have done nothing to deserve it."

"I stopped believing in you. I doubted you," Loki admitted with an uncomfortable shrug, looking over his Father's shoulder so he didn't have to meet His eyes.

"With good reason. I know what you did during those weeks in Japan. I watched you help Veles. I'd have lost faith in myself as well had I been in your position."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. But if it makes you feel better, I forgive you. I just don't entirely think there is anything you need to be forgiven for. You are still one of my most loyal children, you know."

"I left," Loki pointed out, keeping his eyes on the ceiling in the chapel, but sensing his Father's gaze on him.

"You did," God agreed, then He sighed and slumped against the wall, making Loki's eyes' snap to look at the man. "Gabriel, I think you need to go and find your Veles. I approve of him, he's good for you and I know I can trust him to watch over you."

"What?" Loki asked, gaping at his Father.

"You heard me."

"I don't know where he is."

"You haven't tried to find him, Gabriel. I think you need to explain yourself to him, before he becomes like every other God and no longer bothers with his creations, leaving it to his lesser beings under his control," God told him, and Loki just knew that the G had been uppercase.

"Huh, so the capital G really is important then?"

"It really is. Find him, explain yourself, he'll understand," God said calmly. Loki just stared at him, and then huffed and tried to sense where Veles was. He wasn't surprised when he sensed nothing.

"I don't know where he is. He's hiding from me."

"Can't say I blame him. If you go to the root of the problem, Loki, then you'll find him where it all began." Loki stood in the chapel, frozen in shock for a good hour after his Father had left him with that last little nugget of information. That was the first time his Father had referred to him as Loki and not Gabriel.

* * *

**Ten Years Earlier**

Loki gaped at where he had reappeared. It was complete devastation. Veles was talking to a group of seven ankou, the only ones left from the camps, the original five having returned back to their own continents. There were several reapers, yamaduts and, of course, shinigami wandering around the massacre as well. Loki swallowed heavily and then hurried over to Veles.

"—going to be some survivors. It doesn't matter anymore whose jurisdiction they fall under. We need to collect the lost souls. I've discussed it with the other Gods here, take them to the Underworld, once there, we can sort out where they actually should be. Just… we need to help them. Calm them down, tell them what they want to hear, keep them as calm as possible. It's – we're going to be here for quite a while." Veles was talking to him ankou when Loki reached him, the God pretty much standing on top of the epicentre and thus in the middle of the devastation.

"What the hell happened here?" Loki hissed to Veles, who was crouching by the charred remains of a small child. Veles sighed and brushed his hand over the skull, releasing the soul. He whispered something into the little girls ear before the soul disappeared with a nod.

"A bomb. They dropped an atomic bomb on this city and well… this is the result," Veles told him with a wave of his hand outward. He then headed over to where a tall man was standing, watching the hundreds of demi-gods collecting souls. Loki could sense the power in the man, but didn't actually recognise him.

"Veles," the man said in greeting, eyes straying to look at Loki and then dismissing him as unimportant, which was somewhat insulting, but Loki wasn't going to say anything about it.

"Izanami. This is – how did we not see this coming? How are we to deal with this? It will take us weeks to collect all the souls of those killed on impact, and the ones that die soon after," Veles muttered. Loki stood next to him as a silent support and watched when another goddess appeared and walked past, several yamaduts following behind her. "Huh, never thought I'd see Mara."

"No, none of us expected to see her. However… there was a POW camp here. It was not just our people that were affected. All religions have been hit," Izanami told him, before scowling and walking towards a shinigami that seemed to be arguing with a yamadut.

"Shit. Lo, we're gonna need your help here, but soon enough your Christian reapers and possibly that angel of death, Azrael? Him, he's gonna be here soon too. What do you want to do?" Veles hissed at him, keeping an eye on an ankou that seemed to be glaring at another shinigami. Loki bit at his lower lip for a few seconds, fully realising just how much shit he could be in soon enough if he didn't get out of there. He really didn't want to leave Veles though and was beginning to feel a sense of helplessness rise in him.

"I don't… What can I do, Vel? I can't stay here if someone who will know who I am arrives. Besides, how will I be able to help? I don't deal in death," Loki pointed out. Veles looked at him, then glanced over his shoulder, nibbling on his lip. Loki couldn't help but wonder what he was thinking, and then pondered if it was going to be a good thing or a bad thing for him.

"Right. Okay, I can make you a temporary ankou. It'll make you able to collect souls and erm… well it'll hide you from the senses of anyone that may know what you once were. Sound good? Because… I really need help with this. I let go most of the ankou I made! I never realised something this catastrophic was going to happen," Veles bemoaned, looking on the verge of a mental breakdown. Loki looked at him with wide eyes and then nodded, not really seeing any other way around it. Not that he minded. Being an ankou could be fun.

"Fine. Zap me. Make me a temporary ankou," Loki told him, feeling he had made the right choice when Veles smiled at him and pressed a quick kiss to his lips.

* * *

Seven weeks of death and destruction. That was what Loki realised he had agreed to when he had said he would help Veles, though he found he couldn't exactly hate Veles for getting him to agree to it. He felt no regret about it either. However, as the weeks went on, he wondered just how Veles had done this for centuries now, and actually understood why the God came across as being completely insane and somewhat dense at times. Loki was beginning to feel that way himself. Only a week in and he'd worked out that making a joke of everything and feeling no other emotion was the only way to get through it.

Loki noticed Veles sitting, slumped over, on a partially standing wall just on the outskirts of Hiroshima. Brushing his fingers across the forehead of the body he had been next to and then sending the soul down to Veles' underworld. Loki then stood up and walked over to Veles and sat on the wall next to him.

"So we can go? We're done with all this… death?" Loki asked him, looking over at him and really hoping for a positive answer to his question.

"We are. Come let's go back to my rooms," Veles told him in a weary voice, placing his hand on Loki's forearm and taking them to his rooms. He conjured the usual bowl of sweets and then collapsed onto the sofa that Loki normally sat opposite to. Loki however, just nudged his feet to the side and sat down, pulling the bowl of sweets toward him as he did.

"Kali appears to have forgiven me for whatever slight she seems to have thought I did to her," Loki commented lightly. Veles shifted to look at him through his half-shut eyelids, making Loki have the urge to fidget slightly.

"Did she say why she's forgiven you?" Veles asked in a mumbled voice.

"Not as such, but I get the impression it was because of you. Or at least, my relationship with you."

"What? Dysfunctional?" Veles muttered, making Loki snort and shake his head.

"Something like that. Vel, you okay?" Loki asked, frowning when he considered just how wiped out and stressed Veles was acting. It made him worry over just how bad this had affected Veles.

"Not really. I just – I want to forget it all," Veles mumbled, then sat up straight on the sofa and glanced at Loki, "I know how you can help me forget it if only for the time being. I just want a happy moment. Plus I feel like I've been bloody celibate for the past three months. Ugh. I need to get laid and you, my loveable little ex-ankou, are going to help me."

"Ex-ankou? You took them away then?" Loki asked, that did explain the strange cold feeling that swept over him when he arrived with Veles.

"Yeah, you lost them as soon as you entered here. So? Willing to break my unintentional period of celibacy?"

"I don't think three months can count as a period of celibacy," Loki commented lightly, then grinned when Veles kicked him lightly, "fine. To the bed."

* * *

Loki woke up with a grunt, feeling a wave of agony wash over him. Gasping in pain, he glanced over to see Veles curled up at his side and then bit his lip hard enough to taste blood when another wave of pain ran over his body.

He slid away from Veles on the large bed so that he didn't wake him up as he twitched and flinched with the pain. Closing his eyes, Loki tried to relax enough so that he could find out the reasons for his pain, gasping and giving a small, barely audible pain moan when he found it.

He was falling. The pain was his grace destroying itself.

Making a fast decision, the only one he could think of that wouldn't result in him totally losing all that made him what he was and essentially killed him, Loki carefully climbed out of the bed, freezing when Veles mumbled in his sleep before falling silent once more.

Loki paused by the bed once he was clothed, looking at Veles and cringing when he was hit with another bout of pain. Cautiously, Loki leant over the bed and softly kissed Veles' forehead.

"I'm sorry. I love you," Loki whispered against Veles' skin, then he quickly pulled away and ran from Veles' room and his realm giving himself no time to reconsider his decision.

He ran to the only place he could think of that would help him get himself back to sorts and get his faith in his Father strong enough for his grace to recover once more. Heaven being out of the question – and being a place that wouldn't have helped him anyway – Loki went to the only place that he knew would take him in, even though he hadn't been able to visit there for centuries.

He went back to Helheim and his daughter.

It also had the bonus of being the one place he could completely hide from being sensed by Veles.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

**Six Years Earlier**

"Okay, here's the deal. We split up, like we did for the First World War. Only this time, we help those that we think need it. We punish the ones that deserve it and help the innocent people in all of this," Veles stated as he and Loki sat underneath yet another dogfight.

The war had been going on for a fair while now, and things were starting to get more and more desperate on both sides, thus Veles and Loki had decided to finally try and do something about it without influencing anyone's free will – which was just a damned pesky thing but some rules really weren't made to be broken, not if you wanted to stay existing – and had decided ton a plan of action.

They were going to target the instigators of the current war and see if they could terrorise them into stopping the damned thing. Or at the very least, distract them in the most lethally amusing ways possible.

They also had a bet going to see who could set up the most outrageous and humorous tricks without drawing the attention of anyone that might be able to put a stop to things. Loki had some good ideas set up in his mind of what he was going to do, though first they just needed to decide on who was going where.

"So, where do we go? We going for Britain versus Germany? Or Allies versus Axis?" Loki asked, leaning back to lie down in the grass, wincing when one of the planes took a fatal hit and began its lethal dive into the ground.

"Hmm, Britain and Germany seems good. Dibs on Britain," Veles said, lying back to join Loki, turning to watch the remaining two planes try to shoot the other out of the sky. Really, it hadn't been all that fair two against one, but things were a little more even now. No thanks to either of them. Nope. He and Loki had had no hand in the current battle going on whatsoever.

"That's fine. I'll take Germany. Someone has to," Loki muttered, surreptitiously clicking his fingers and grinned at the bag of Twizzlers that appeared on his stomach, he offered one to Veles, who snorted but took one all the same.

"Rather you than me. Never got the hang of the German language."

"You're speaking it right now," Loki deadpanned, snickering at the genuinely shocked expression on Veles' face.

"Really? So what in the hell were we trying to speak last year?"

"German."

"But… that was not what I'm speaking right now."

"It was," Loki admitted with a small shrug, then grinned, "but apparently your linguistic skills become non-existent once you've imbibed a whole litre bottle of Absinthe."

"The work of the Devil."

"I know the Devil. Lucifer was never creative enough to create something that evil. The genius of Absinthe is entirely down to the minds of twisted humans."

"Ah, that explains everything."

* * *

"_Did it work? Did it?" Gabriel jerked as much as a conscious _could_ jerk and had the curious sensation of having been in free fall for a few moments before hitting the ground. _

"_It worked. He's still around." _

* * *

**Fifteen Years Earlier**

Loki sat in the small café in London city centre waiting for Veles to show up. He'd gotten the message – delivered to him by a very exhausted and somewhat traumatised owl – from Veles to meet him there, and not having anything else to actually do, he had decided to go along and see what he needed.

He looked up when the tiny bell rang when the door opened and saw Veles enter and head straight over to him, nodding once in greeting to the girl behind the till.

"Vel! You okay? Wondered what was wrong? Alright and I also had to wonder about the owl. I think I may have scarred it for life, he found me mid-trick," Loki admitted with a grin as soon as Veles sat down at the table. Veles just looked at him with a small grin and shook his head.

"I'd wondered what happened to him when he got back. Glad you got the message though. Any of your tricks have anything to do with this stock crash?" Veles asked him, smiling widely in thanks when a coffee was placed in front of him.

"Of course they have! You think I'm not going to take advantage of this? This is a gold mine for us! I'm going to assume you have been doing the same?" Loki asked, getting his answer straight away from the wicked smirk on Veles' face.

"You'd assume correct! It's really quite amusing all the faffing going on and the panicking. Of course, I still haven't and refuse to step foot on American soil, so I haven't witnessed the worst of it, but it's still amusing over on this side of the pond."

"That's very true! So is that the only reason you sent for me?" Loki finally asked, taking a sip of his own overly sugary coffee and looking at Veles closely, noticing him fidget in his seat in a clear show of discomfort.

"Not really," Veles admitted quietly, then sighed and looked straight at Loki, "do you ever just get a little lonely sometimes? Constantly alone with only the occasional meeting with other gods, because gods are really the only other beings out there that would understand?"

Loki looked at Veles and shrugged, not entirely sure how to answer. He could see what Veles meant, and felt it all the more since he wasn't the most popular god out there and of the ones the did tolerate him, Veles was the only one knew who he actually was.

"You do have a bit of a point," Loki conceded eventually. Veles looked at him and smiled softly, looking a little depressed now that Loki looked more closely. Apparently it wasn't just the humans going through a great depression.

"So… I have this strange request. It's random and it's a little unusual, but well, there it is," Veles said with a shrug. Loki just stared at him silently and then blinked. When it looked like Veles wasn't actually going to _share_ his idea, Loki decided to nudge him towards telling him the damned thought.

"Right, brilliant, you know I can't actually read you mind, right? Humans? Sure, they're all kinds of weak in the mind, vampires? Werewolves? Yep, those too. Gods, upper or lowercase g? Nope. So you are actually going to have to speak this plan out loud for me to give you a valid input," Loki told him, and Veles just stared at him, blush slowly rising up his face, made all the more obvious by his pale white skin tone.

"Of course, right, yes, you do have a point there."

"I know. I'm awesome like that, you've still yet to share the plan," Loki calmly pointed out, deciding to add another lump of sugar to his coffee and stirring it a couple of times in the hope that not giving Veles his undivided attention would get the God to spill.

"Fine! I just think, I'm lonely, you're lonely, we're both tricksters and we're both completely amazing in bed together, I just… I think we should maybe stick together for a little while. See if we can tolerate living together for longer than a weekend."

"We've stayed together for a whole weekend?" Loki asked, trying to think back to that, but not really succeeding.

"Sure we have! Moscow, 1891! Great time! Right?" Veles told him, sounding uncertain of the fact. Loki was fairly certain he hadn't been in Moscow in 1891, but he couldn't actually remember _anything_ of 1891, so it was entirely possible Veles was right. Which was why he just nodded his agreement. "Exactly! And we're still alive, so clearly we survived that!"

"Clearly. How long are we intending on sticking together exactly?" Loki asked, not that he was completely against the idea. The more he met up with Veles, the less he wanted to leave against afterwards. His time in the God's underworld just solidified that. Loki just wasn't quite ready to look into his reason behind that feeling.

"Well, until one of us has to leave for some reason or another. You know, religious duties of whatever. Plus, think about it, not only would we have company, company that accepts and understands all there is to the other, but my presence would cover your own, so should we ever bump into one of your delightfully glowy brothers, they won't be able to sense you under my own magic!"

"That's… actually, that's a good idea. Fine, I'm in. So, your place or mine?" Loki asked with a wink, ignoring the jump his heart gave when Veles smiled widely at him. He just wasn't ready to look into it just yet. Maybe another time.

Right now he was just going to carry on as he always has. And ignore his deeper feelings.

* * *

"_I never realised how hard this would be." Gabriel was frustrated at some level to realise that, with the voices having returned, so was his continuous feeling of being lost. _

"_It's harder because of what he became." _

* * *

**Eight Years Earlier**

Loki wandered through the many souls that occupied Veles' realm, all waiting for their time that they would be given a new life when they were reincarnated. Which was never something that Loki ever thought Veles would do, but apparently the souls were given a choice by Charon, the gatekeeper to the realm. Upon their passing through, they were asked if they wished to pass on and disperse, or if they wanted to stay and wait for a chance to be reincarnated.

According to Charon, about seventy percent chose to be reincarnated. Though, there was a small percentage of that seventy percent, that then got given a different role. Every so often, apparently, Veles needed new workers, be they ankou or something else. Charon had admitted that he had been the first to be recruited. He'd been wandering the realms for decades before Veles had found him and told him that he could either be reincarnated or given the role of gatekeeper.

Loki could see why he had agreed to the latter option. It looked to be a fun job. Loki had spent a better part of the six months he had been there, bothering the poor being and generally making a nuisance of himself. He had also taken the time to follow Veles' advice and had searched out the small section of the underworld that held all of Veles' creations before he introduced them to the world. He'd once sat and watched Veles create a strange creature that looked to be some sort of monkey cat hybrid. It was both an odd and adorable creature. And he couldn't help but notice just how differently Veles and his Father went about making their own creations. He knew they each put a bit of themselves in their creations, but for some reason, he felt that Veles gave his attention to each creation. Loki actually quite liked the little monkey-cats, or MonKats as he had unoriginally decided to mentally call them – he was a trickster god, not a creator, names were not his thing – and had spent a decent amount of time just playing with them in the underworld. Apparently Veles had not gotten around to introducing them just yet, Loki got the impression he had been too upset by the destruction of the leanbraiochs and hadn't quite dared introduce anything new.

Right now though, he was searching for a soul, something he had been doing during the times he wasn't tricking Charon. He searched out the souls that gave out the least light, that seemed to hide in the shadows the most. He had learnt, during his first week of being there, that they were the troubled souls. The ones that had been murdered, abused, hurt in some way or just forgotten about whilst still alive and had died alone.

He searched these souls out and tried to put them at ease. Gave them the confidence they never had in life and used his grace to let them feel some peace at their decision to try again. Because he respected that choice. He had no idea what they had gone through in their life, but as bad as it had been, they had still decided to give another life a chance in spite of it. Or perhaps it was because of their previous life. Loki didn't know, but he liked them and felt joy in being able to give them something.

Loki had decided that he had been hiding in Veles' realm for long enough, six months of never leaving, watching the occasional victim of the First World War arrive and worrying over how Veles was taking it. He could still remember the look on Veles' face when he found him six months before in the trenches.

So he was searching for one last soul to help and then he was going to return back to the mortal realm, and hope that the brother that he had sensed, hadn't sensed him in return and thus was not looking for him.

He really hoped that wasn't the case. That would completely ruin any and all of his future plans if he had to live the next several decades hiding from his brothers. Or down here. As much as he loved it down here, and he did, it was peaceful and quiet. Which was something he secretly loved, even though he'd never admit it. He still wouldn't really want to spend an indefinite time down here. Charon would probably end up sobbing uncontrollably.

* * *

_Gabriel slowly started to realise that certain things he hadn't realised he'd forgotten in the first place, were being returned to him. Then wondered at the flush of shame he had for forgetting chocolate._

* * *

**Six Months Earlier**

Loki froze as soon as he sensed one of his brothers near him, and then silently cursed them, trying to feel if he was giving off enough magic and grace for the other to sense him. Cursing again when he felt just high up the other angel was, he could chance whether or not he could be sensed in return, and vanished from the house he had been setting up a trick. The victim was highly lucky that an angel apparently had business in the same town as him. He had gotten off lightly.

Loki just hoped he would be just as lucky.

Not really having anywhere else to go, he went to where he could feel Veles, and arrived in the middle of a battlefield. Literally. There were dead bodies all over, reminding Loki of the reason that he had been laying lethal tricks on the people that were partially behind the war that no one knew the reasons behind. It had been the plan both he and Veles had come up with upon hearing the first whispers about this so-called 'Great War', and this would be the first time since it had started that they'd met up again.

He walked over to where Veles was wandering over the grounds, glancing at the dead bodies as he passed, and Loki noticed another reaper – or ankou, as it appeared to belong to Veles – was taking the occasional soul of a downed soldier on the field a couple of metres to his left.

"So this is what I've been missing? Looks… messy," Loki commented once he had finally found his tongue. Veles spun around quickly to face him, and raised an eyebrow upon seeing who it was. Loki stalled the inevitable question by turning away and looking over the field, No Man's Land if he remembered correctly. It sounded rather apt, in the most morbid of ways.

"Hmm. Messy is one way of describing it. How goes your own task?" Veles asked him and turning back to face the direction of where he had been heading. Loki shrugged and then moved to follow Veles, wondering how to approach the subject of why he fled.

"I've had a break in things. An old family member was lingering around a bit too close to where I was staying. Didn't want to be found," Loki finally muttered, making Veles stop and turn around to look at him in concern.

"Well… shit. Did they sense you before you left?"

"I don't think so," Loki admitted with a shrug, rubbing the back of his neck and then shoving a Twizzler in his mouth, having gotten a taste for them when he had last gone over to America. He looked up to see Veles looking at him curiously and tilted his head in silent question.

"You don't… what is that?" Veles asked him instead as he watched Loki nibble on the candy. Loki had the fleeting thought that it was a terrible thing Veles not knowing what a Twizzler was.

"Huh? This? It's a Twizzler. Like… a liquorice stick," Loki told him and then passed one of them over to Veles, who warily took it and looked at it strangely, before looking back up at Loki. Loki couldn't help but compare it back to their first meeting when he'd force-fed the man chocolate.

"Liquorice doesn't tend to be red," Veles pointed out, still not putting the sweet anywhere near his mouth. Loki just watched him in amusement, and shook his head with a chuckle when Veles looked at him.

"Have you noticed we have the most random of conversations in the most inappropriate of places? And it's strawberry flavoured. I think," Loki added hastily, with a small shrug, finishing off his own Twizzler and pulling another out of his pocket.

"We do. But recently, there hasn't actually been anywhere that is appropriate for any light-hearted conversations. Back to the original topic however, are you certain they didn't sense you?" Veles asked him and Loki paused with the Twizzler in his mouth and then shrugged, pulling it out and sighing.

"I don't know. I hope not, but I'm not too sure. If they did, chances are we don't have long until they will be here," Loki admitted, grinning at him sheepishly and truly hoping that that wasn't going to be the case. He had no doubts that Veles would be fine should he be confronted by any of his brothers, but he'd still rather avoid it all the same.

"Why did you come to me then? I mean, why didn't you go somewhere they wouldn't be able to find you?"

"I don't know of anywhere and I figured, who better to hide me than a god of death?" Loki asked with a cheeky grin, making Veles roll his eyes and nod his head.

"I'll take you to my underworld. You'll be safe there. Let me go grab that soul over there, Friedrich Wewer is about to come to an unfortunate demise," Veles commented lightly, making his way over to where a German soldier was getting ready to charge over the trenches with his fellow soldiers.

Loki walked after him and watched, flinching when the bullet hit Friedrich in the chest and made him drop to the floor, his comrades having no choice but to fall back and having to leave the body behind.

"Friedrich, come, it's time to leave here. You are of no help to your friends any longer," Veles told the soul quietly, and Loki watched them before quickly rushing over the rest of the distance between them to stand next to Veles when the God looked over at him.

"Will they be okay without me?" Friedrich asked him, looking over his shoulder at the soldiers behind him. Veles sighed and placed a hand on the souls shoulder, getting his attention back.

"They will be fine," Veles told him, and Loki knew it was a lie. He wouldn't be surprised if Friedrich knew that as well. Veles turned slightly to grip Loki's wrist with his other hand and then locked eyes with Friedrich, "it is time for you to move on now, let's go." And with that, Veles took them all down to the underworld.

* * *

Loki followed Veles to him rooms once they had left Friedrich in the hands of Charon, the Gate Keeper. He wondered just how long he'd be able to stay down here, hiding from his brothers and his past, and how long it would be before he got fed up of his own cowardice.

Veles closed the door behind them once in the room, motioning for Loki to take a seat and making a bowl of assorted sweets appear on the coffee table in front of the chairs. Loki made a small noise of interest in the back of his throat, before throwing himself on the couch and grabbing the bowl of sweets, tucking in whilst looking up at Veles, waiting for what he was going to say about it all.

"So do you know which family member it was?" Veles asked him, moving to sit on the chair opposite Loki.

"I don't know, no. Why? Would a name actually mean anything to you?" Loki asked him curiously and quite validly, given he hadn't actually known the name Gabriel off the top of his head.

"Not really, no. I know your name and er… Hmm… Michael? That's one, right? He's an angel thing person?" Veles asked. Loki snorted and started to choke on the sweet in his mouth as he thought about what Michael's reaction would have been had he heard Veles saying that.

"Michael? Yeah, he's an angel. He's a dick, too," Loki muttered, once he had stopped choking. Veles raised an eyebrow at him and then snickered.

"Such a loving family. Aren't Christians all for family love and stuff?" Veles asked with a negligent wave of his hand. Loki just looked at him in amusement and shook his head.

"What about you? You don't have any siblings?"

"Nope. I'm an only child. Per se. Uppercase G God, that's me," Veles told him with a very proud look on his face, even going so far as to puff his chest out in pride. Loki snickered and shook his head, silently pondering if the God's head would grow to accommodate the size of his ego.

"I'm a god too, you know."

"Lowercase g, makes all the difference. I'm more important. It's a proven fact. You have other gods to contend with and all that. I have all my people to myself, no one else to share my delicious little worshippers with," Veles informed him with a smug smirk, making it sound like he considered all his worshippers as tasty snacks. Loki just gaped at him and made a small indignant noise at having been brushed aside so easily.

"Yeah? Well… I'm an uppercase A Archangel! Beat that!" Loki exclaimed with a proud nod, though he felt his pride deflate a little when Veles scoffed at him.

"God beats Archangel… and technically, you're only uppercase A when someone is referring to the Archangel Gabriel… otherwise… still lowercase I'm afraid," Veles told him. Loki huffed and crossed his arms over his chest, pouting and glaring at Veles with narrowed eyes.

"Oh go choke on a dictionary, you freak!"

"Don't get your Twizzlers in a knot, dear," Veles said with a smirk, before he frowned and shifted in his seat. "Upper or lowercase g, you're still a god. You feel when something bad is coming, don't you?"

"If it's going to be really big, then yeah, I do. Why?" Loki asked, though he had an inkling that he knew exactly why Veles was asking, and knew he wouldn't be able to say all that much. Mostly because he was so out of touch with everything to do with his past, that he didn't actually know if any of the plans had gone ahead yet, or if they ever would. Though, knowing Michael and Raphael, he'd be surprised if they _didn't_ go ahead with everything.

"Because I feel like something really big is coming. I've been feeling it for over a century now. And even with this stupid war going on, it's still there," Veles told him, nibbling on his lip.

"Ah, which means that it's going to be even bigger and more devastating than this. Yeah, I'm getting the same feelings as well," Loki admitted with a sigh, but that truly was all he could admit. Times like this, he wished he hadn't cut off all ties with everyone.

"Well, shit. So what now?" Veles asked, standing up from his chair and moving to sit on the same sofa with Loki, sitting sideways to look at the other man.

"Nothing we _can_ do," Loki admitted with a shrug, shifting in his seat at the discomfort he felt at that fact.

"So I go back to convincing dead soldiers that they don't want to become future victims of hunters, and you go back to driving the leaders of this war round the bend?" Veles asked, looking at him with a completely unimpressed look on his face.

"Ah… actually, think I can hide out down here for a little while? I have no idea how long they're gonna be in the mortal realm for and _really_ don't want to go back." Loki admitted, pouting slightly at the thought that he was _hiding_ from his brothers once more. Veles looked at him and rolled his eyes, but nodded all the same.

"Fine, stay here. Wander around, chat up the unsuspecting souls waiting for reincarnation, and terrify the creations I have yet to send up. I really do need to go back up though. My ankou are becoming overrun," Veles said with a weary sigh. Loki reached out and grabbed Veles' wrist before he could stand up from the table, making Veles pause and look at him.

"You have to leave right now? Because I can think of something that we could do that would take your mind off of everything for a short time," Loki told him, smirking at him and leering to exaggerate his point. Veles snorted but still shook his head, much to Loki's disappointment. He really was beginning to think he'd gone celibate again.

"You're absolutely certain you weren't lying to me when you told me you're actually an angel? Horny buggers, aren't you?"

"You've met other angels?" Loki asked him, fairly certain of the answer if he thought they were all horny. Most of the angels he could remember would have look scandalised at the word horny. Or thought you were talking about a goat or something. Some angels were a little on the special side. His Father never truly believed in making everything equal in all ways. A couple of his siblings were proof of that, being a couple of colours short of a rainbow. Raphael came to mind.

"Well… no."

"Ah, see. Not all are horny. You should meet some of my younger brothers. I doubt they even know the meaning of the word horny," Loki told him, still grinning his Cheshire Cat grin and getting a chuckle and mock shocked look from Veles.

"Really? And you haven't taught them the meaning? No corrupting the little fluffy angels of the Christian Heaven? No tarnishing their halos?" Veles asked with a sly grin on his face. Loki chuckled and shaking his head as he imagined any of his brothers looking like what Veles apparently thought angels looked like.

"You do know that we don't have halos, right? Where did that even come from? What is practical about having a metal hoop hovering above your head? Hardly inconspicuous," Loki told him. He gave a small tug on Veles' wrist and grinned when Veles snorted and moved to lean against him.

"Hmm, never know if some random demon is going to pull it down and throttle you with it. How about you try to corrupt me instead?"

"Corrupt you? I'm the innocent angel here, you're the one corrupting me," Loki exclaimed with mock innocence, though judging by the look on Veles' face, he didn't buy it. Not that he blamed him, given the things they had done together.

"Loki, that would be akin to corrupting a whore," Veles told him, yelping and laughing when Loki pinched his side.

"I'm ineffable, I'll have you know!" Loki exclaimed, whilst Veles was still giggling, leaning heavily against him.

"Sure you are. I guess I should get to work on corrupting you then?" Veles asked once he had stopped laughing, moving to press against Loki's side and pressing a kiss to the archangel's neck. "That _will_ be fun."

* * *

"_What is that?" Gabriel could hear the pure confusion in the voice of the older being, and could almost imagine the younger of the two smirking mysteriously. _

"_Something important."_

* * *

**Sixteen Years Earlier**

Loki is amused when he senses Veles searching for him seconds before the God appeared in front of him. Chuckling, Loki took in the appearance of Veles, looking completely unruffled for once and was about to ask what he wanted him for when he found himself with an armful of excitable God.

"Er… good to see you too, Vel. It's been, what? Seven months?" Loki asked, amused by the greeting and finally wrapping his own arms around Veles to return to the hug.

A good five minutes later, Veles finally pulled back and looked at him with a wide smile, "Just wanted to see you! You do know it's been two hundred years since we first met! So I thought we could go celebrate that and the new year by being all nostalgic and going back to where we met!"

"It's still there?" Loki asked dubiously, because like Veles had said, it had been two hundred years, and he was doubting that the very same pub they had met in was still going to be there.

"Of course it is! Owned by the same family too, admittedly it's the son of the guy who owned it when we were there, but still, same pub!"

"Son? But… _how_?" Loki asked, not too sure how someone could still be alive after what must be more than two hundred years. Unless they weren't human, and Loki was almost positive that the bartender had been human.

"Wizards live far longer than humans, I told you that," Veles told him impatiently, and Loki gaped for a second before frowning and shaking his head.

"Fine, but two hundred years?" Loki exclaimed, waving his hands in the hope that Veles picked up on how baffling this was for him. He wasn't getting the impression that Veles was, however.

"Well, yes, alright, I'll concede that that's a little long even for a wizard. But he's also got the blood of some creature in him. I have no idea what. I've totally forgotten. Harpy? I think it might be harpy…" Veles mused. Loki stared at him, completely amused, and then nudged Veles to get his attention back on track. "Hmm? Oh! Yes. So?"

"Fine, let's go be nostalgic and get drunk," Loki said, chuckling when Veles gave a happy squeak and grabbed Loki's hand, taking them to the pub with a wink and a pop.

Muttering viciously under his breath about ways of travel, Loki steadied himself as soon as they appeared in front of the pub, and glared at a smirking Veles.

"Come on!" Veles chirped happily, and Loki huffed a sigh, rolling his eyes and then following behind Veles, wondering why he was so hyper. He reached Veles at the bar, smiling when he realised not much had changed, and took the seat next to him.

"Okay, fine, this was a good idea," Loki told him, after taking in every change that he could of the pub and turning back to Veles, who was smiling widely at him.

"See! Oi! Barman!" Veles hollered and Loki couldn't help but think both of them were completely different from when they had last been there. The bartender turned from where he had been talking to another punter, and looked at them grumpily. Loki could definitely see the likeness between him and his late father. "Harpy. Defnitely harpy."

"What?"

"The blood in his veins. It's harpy," Veles muttered to him, then turned back to smile brightly at the bartender, getting a scowl for his efforts, "two Firewhiskey's please."

"Firewhiskey?" Loki asked when the bartender turned to get their drinks.

"Yeah, well I couldn't actually remember what the hell we were drinking last time we were here and I have no idea if they still make them. This is the only drink I could remember."

"I can't remember much of that night, if I'm totally honest," Loki admitted, grabbing his drink with a nod of thanks as soon as it was placed in front of him, "So, here's to two hundred years of friendship and insanity."

"And two hundred more of the same, at least!" Veles replied with a wide smile, tapping their glasses together. Loki chuckled and downed the drink, regretting it almost immediately when it almost set fire to his oesophagus. Choking and wheezing, tears running down his face, Loki gratefully accepted the glass of water Veles pushed into his hand.

"Lightweight."

"Lightweight?" Loki wheezed, staring at Veles in shock, coughing a little still, and feeling grateful for the water that had soothed his throat a little.

"Yeah, I supposed I could have also told you not to down it. Ah well. It was amusing."

"You're horrible."

"Yep. Happy New Years, Lo," Veles told him with a fond smile, throwing an arm over Loki's shoulders and tugging him into a hug that Loki willingly went into.

"Happy New Years, Vel."

* * *

"_Is that supposed to happen?" Panic didn't even get to set in before Gabriel suddenly… wasn't._

* * *

**Seventeen Years Earlier**

Loki sensed him long before he actually saw him. His whole being sensed the other god searching for him and knew the exact moment that he pinpointed Loki's location and Loki sighed, deciding to wait and see what he wanted.

Luckily, he didn't have to wait long, and as soon as he saw him, Loki pushed away from the wall he was leaning on and made a small gesture for Gahnesh to follow him into a small, out of the way pub.

"So, what brings you…" Loki trailed off and grinned cheekily at the god sitting in front of him. "Well, what brings you _anywhere_ outside of Asia?"

"Veles," Gahnesh told him, and Loki felt completely justified in gaping because that really wasn't what he was expecting at all.

"Huh?"

"Veles. You've been avoiding him. I do not care for reasons why, but I know that he is going to need you now. For some reason he actually cares for you," Gahnesh told him, the look on his face a clear indicator of what he actually thought of that. Not that Loki was all that surprised, he'd never got on with the weird elephant god.

No sense of humour.

"I haven't been avoiding him per se. I've been trying to get my thoughts in order," Loki muttered and frowning as he glanced down at his hands on the table.

"Well, I think perhaps you should put them in order a little quicker than you have been. Veles is currently on a small island called Pulau Surtung. You might wish to get there as soon as you can. He trusts you much more than he trusts any of us."

"What's happened?" Loki asked him, feeling his worry niggle in his stomach, shoving aside any problems he had had been stewing over. Not that he didn't continue to wonder over his friendship or whatever it was that he had with Veles. He had no clue how to deal with any of it and he hadn't heard anything from his Father for centuries. He looked up sharply when Gahnesh placed a hand over his own and looked at him shrewdly.

"Go and find the newest God." Loki narrowed his eyes at him, eyes darting down to look at the hand over his own when it tightened in a way that could be considered threatening. "When you do, do not mess with him, Loki. There are many of us who hold that God in high esteem. We will get any and all retribution we think he needs should someone hurt him. Even though we know he would rather we didn't. Remember that, Loki."

Loki sat, gaping at where Gahnesh had sat for a good fifteen minutes after the other god had left him, before he shook his head and stood up to leave. Concentrating on the whereabouts of his feather, and appearing there.

There was devastation. That was the only thing Loki could think when he appeared on the small island. Pulau Surtung if Gahnesh had been right. All around him was destruction. He had, of course, known on some subconscious level, of the eruption that had happened not all that long ago. He just hadn't seen the results of it.

Until now.

Loki looked around him at the barely recognisable burnt figures that he could only assume were once people. As he slowly made his way closer to where he could sense Veles, the corpses started to look more and more recognisable as just that. Though that was about all they were recognisable as. Loki had never, in his entire existence, seen anything like the tiny, crimson-skinned creatures huddled amongst the bodies of other magical creatures that Loki _did_ recognise.

He finally came across Veles crouching down next to one of the small red creatures, brushing a finger across it's forehead tenderly, and Loki felt his heart twinge at the look of sheer loss and pain on Veles' face. He stepped nearer to make his presence known and Veles straightened up and spun around quickly. He visibly reared back in shock upon seeing Loki standing there and Loki took the time for Veles to get over his shock by glancing once more around him, then looked at Veles in shocked confusion.

"You look how I feel," Veles informed him in a hoarse voice that made Loki wonder how long he had been silent for and feeling some guilt over the thought that some of this might have been his fault. Veles brushed past him as he passed by to kneel next to the body of what Loki thought was possibly an incubus, tapping it's head and whispering something before standing once more and turning to look at Loki, "where have you been? I was beginning to get worried."

"I know. A mutual friend of ours told me. He informed me that you might need a friendly face, and now I understand what he meant. I don't think I had ever been to this island before. Didn't even know it had occupants," Loki admitted as he looked around him once more, memories of Sodom and Gomorrah flashing through his mind, and making him wince in guilt for an entirely different reason than a few minutes before.

"No, no one really did. It was only truly inhabited in the last century or so. When I created these tiny people," Veles murmured, and Loki watched him run a finger down the face of one of the crimson-skinned creatures, Loki noticing absently that they had pure silver hair as well and looked like miniature nymphs of myth. Loki walked closer to Veles and titled his head to the side as he examined them, taking note of the long, delicate fingers and long pointed ears. Veles was right, it was really quite small, only reaching two foot in height, had it been standing.

"What is it?"

"They were a kind of sprite, I suppose would be the best description. They thrived in hot climates, but needed to be close to water. This place was ideal. Clearly not as ideal as I had hoped. This is the second species I have lost to extinction now. I really quite liked them," Veles admitted quietly before he sighed and stood to face Loki once more. "Enough about my troubles however, we need to talk about you. It's not good for a Trickster to be walking around with a bottom lip he might soon trip over. Lo, what's wrong?"

"I don't – I can't say. It's nothing really. Nothing important at least," Loki insisted, looking away from Veles to glance towards the islands in the distance, nibbling on his lip as his insides twisted in indecision. He looked towards where the volcano had erupted, ash and smoke still billowing from it and frowned to himself at his selfishness.

"Nothing important? You've been like this for over a century. I think that would suggest you were lying," Veles told him dryly, then narrowed his eyes at the stubborn god and stepped up to him, almost touching and forcing Loki to look at him, "come with me. I know somewhere we can talk that will be safe from anyone that may feel inclined to listen."

Loki looked at him in confusion and Veles smiled at him softly, placing the palm of his hand to Loki's head and closing his eyes. Loki closed his own eyes and had the sensation of being squeezed through a straw, before it stopped and he opened his eyes.

He looked around him in confusion, taking note of the high ceiling of the room they were in, the walls seemingly made out of obsidian or something similar. There was a large bed in the room, with a deep blue cover over it, and two blue sofas facing a fireplace.

Veles stepped away from Loki and clicked his fingers in a way very similar to Loki, making the fireplace come to life with blue and silver flames, which made Loki frown and then look at Veles. Blue flames were just odd. Though, they were quite nice to look at. Still odd though, and made Loki wonder if Veles perhaps had some sort of chemical in there that made the flames blue. He wouldn't have put it past the strange man to have copper in that fireplace.

"What? It goes with the theme. Red and yellow would have messed it all up. This, Loki, is my realm. Well, my home within my realm. The whole realm is somewhat larger, having to host spirits and such. And nothing and no one can eavesdrop on anything said within this room." Or he could have used magic. That, Loki silently admitted, made more sense than copper. Pushing oddly coloured flames to the back of his mind, Loki looked at Veles speculatively, then looked back at the blue fire.

"So this is where you live?" Loki asked him, not looking away from the flames, feeling calmed just at the sight, which just bemused him. He finally managed to drag his eyes away from the fire and looked over to see Veles watching him in amusement.

"Sort of. Mostly I live up top, got a small cottage in Moscow. Nice place, locals are delightful. Sometimes," Veles added as an after thought, before he moved and sat in one of the couches, looking at Loki. Loki jerked and moved to do the same, sighing and leaning his head back, closing his eyes as he felt his body relax into the warmth and comfort of the sofa. "You don't have to tell me. But I am here to listen."

"I know. It's just… hard. Everything is hard. And recently it's become harder for some reason. I don't really know why. It happens every so often. I get melancholy and think about what things were like before…" Loki trailed off, looking into the fire, not for the first time (and probably not for the last) wondering if everyone in heaven believed Michael and Raphael when they said he was dead. Something Gabriel had been both amused and hurt by. It did stop them searching for him though.

"Before? Before when? Before mortals seemed to get more and more inventive with their reasons to hate one another? I know that feeling," Veles grumbled. Loki chuckled mirthlessly and shook his head, taking a deep breath before he just decided to tell Veles everything. Including who he once was.

"No. I'm not… I don't – I'm not a God like you. I can't create beings, I don't have any followers anymore and… well I'm not like you," Loki muttered, scrubbing at his face with his hands, whilst Veles just continued to look at him in confusion.

"Well no, I never thought you were. For one, you're Norse and most seem to think I'm Slavic. Which I've never understood, can I just say. My people are all over the world. And well… you're a heck of a lot older than I am and your er… your magic is different to anything that I have ever come across. It's amazing to be honest," Veles told him with a small smile. Loki tried to smile back, but got the impression he failed in that slightly. He had an idea of how his magic felt to Veles.

"There's a reason that my magic feels so different to yours. Like I said I'm not like you. I don't…" Loki trailed off and sighed, looking around the room and then back at Veles. "No one can hear us in here? Nothing? No other gods or creatures?"

"No," Veles told him, frowning in confusion and then looking around the room, "this is separate from the mortal realm. This is all mine, you are the only other god that even knows of this place. No one can enter this realm without my say so, I know everyone and thing in this place. That includes gods from all religions. Even the Judeo-Christian God can't get into this place without my say so."

"So I can tell you anything and no one else will hear it?"

"Precisely. Loki, what's going on?" Veles asked, standing up to sit on the same sofa as Loki and placing a hand on the Trickster's arm.

"I wasn't always known as Loki, Norse trickster god. I went as something before I took up that role," Loki muttered, snapping his fingers and feeling his shoulders slump in disappointment when nothing appeared.

"I'm the only one that can use magic in this room. What did you want?" Veles asked him, and Loki just shrugged, then sighed before he answered. It figured he wouldn't be able to do any magic down here.

"Chocolate. I'm going to need lots of chocolate. And anything else sweet," Loki grumbled and Veles chuckled but snapped his fingers together, making a bowl full of sweets and other candies appear in his other hand, which he then passed over to Loki.

"Okay… so you have your sugar intake now," Veles said, watching as Loki nibbled on a chocolate truffle, "want to tell me who you were? What name you went by before you chose Loki?" Veles asked, shifting so that he was sitting sideways on the sofa and was looking at Loki.

"Gabriel," Loki muttered around a chocolate bonbon that he had shoved in his mouth. The melted chocolate sticking to his cheeks and the back of his throat, and making his regret shoving the whole thing in a little. Veles looked at him and tilted his head to the side, clearly trying to think of where he had heard the name before. Not that Loki expected him to know who Gabriel was. Veles had never shown any interest in other religions beyond talking to the actual gods. Loki knew Veles had never spoken his Father.

"You were human? Before becoming a god, I mean? You were a human called Gabriel? I was a human before this, you know? I was called Harry though, which is slightly more boring than Gabriel, though less... gender ambiguous. Is that what's wrong though? You're upset about something from your human life?" Veles asked him and Loki shook his head. He sighed and clutched the bowl tighter, practically hugging it to his chest and feeling like he was hiding behind it. Hiding behind a bowl of chocolates to protect him from the horrible memories of his past.

"No. I was something else," Loki told him and Veles looked at him with a raised eyebrow, "I was an archangel. The Archangel Gabriel."

Veles was silent for a few moments before he nodded and then grinned widely. "If I were Catholic, I'd so be kneeling at your feet right now."

"You have to be Catholic to kneel at my feet? Since when? Never stopped you before," Loki pointed out. He felt his whole body suddenly feel lighter as relief flooded him when Veles didn't make a large deal out of who he was. He hadn't realised just how worried he had been about Veles' opinion on everything, and seemingly having his acceptance just took a huge weight off of Loki's mind. Veles chuckled and moved so that he was kneeling on the sofa and moved to almost press against Loki's side.

"So do you have wings?" Veles asked, lips brushing against Loki's ear. Loki shuddered in lust and felt Veles smirk.

"I do, yeah," Loki admitted, his voice sounding equally low voice as Veles'. He tilted his head to the side to give Veles access to his neck, and bringing his hand up to grip the God's hair in his fist.

"Can I see them?" Veles asked, brushing his nose against the skin behind Loki's ear and then pressing a kiss to it. He brought his hand up and trailed it down Loki's spine. Loki gasped, fist clenching in Veles' hair even tighter as he tried to press into the touch. This was certainly going much better than he had ever expected.

"Sure," Loki gasped, before he moved quickly, dropping the bowl of treats to the floor and dragging Veles to straddle his lap. Veles gasped in surprise and then moaned into Loki's mouth when the trickster pulled his head down to kiss. Loki pulled back slightly and locked eyes with Veles, smirking, "now?"

"No," Veles told him, rocking his hips down into Loki's, breath hitching in pleasure when their erections brushed. Loki grunted, thrusting his hips up to meet Veles' when Veles shifted to suck on Loki's neck. Loki moved his hands to grip Veles' hips, dragging them closer together and grinding up into him, gasping lightly. "Right now I have other plans."

"I think I like where these plans look to be going," Loki muttered, groaning as he thrust his hips up into Veles, in turn causing the God to bite his neck.

"Oh, you will," Veles told him as he licked at bite mark on Loki's neck and thrust down into him. He then pulled back to look at Loki and winked, making their clothing disappear.

"Neat trick, you'll have to teach me."

"And make you lose your trademark finger clicking? Definitely," Veles told him with a smirk, then gasped when Loki gripped both their erections and began to stroke them slowly. Veles moved his hands to grip at Loki's shoulders and pressed his forehead against Loki's, "shouldn't you be all virginal and pious? Being an angel and all?" Veles asked, voice hitching when Loki's other hand moved to brush against him.

"Not an angel anymore. It was too boring for me. Lube?" Loki asked him, pressing the tip of his finger into Veles, smirking when Veles gasped and pressed back, even as he waved his hand and made lube appear on Loki's fingers.

"We really need to talk after thi-iss," Veles gasped out, voice hitching and making him hiss in a strange snake-like manner when Loki immediately pushed two fingers inside of him, searching for that little spot that would make Veles turn to mush. Veles yelped and thrust down onto Loki's fingers when he found it, Loki just smirked and moved to press his lips to Veles' throat.

"We don't need to talk about anything, Vel," Loki whispered against his skin, brushing almost continuously against that spot in Veles, making the God keen as he pressed himself as close to Loki as he could get.

"Okay! Fine! Stop teasing me!" Veles finally cried out when Loki pushed a third finger into him and continued to press against his prostate. Loki moved his other hand from his erection to grip the back of Veles' neck and pulled his head back down so that he could kiss him.

Loki smirked against their lips and withdrew his fingers, before he spread the rest of the lube over his own erection and then slid his hand down Veles' back and gripped his hip. Veles moved so that the tip of Loki's erection was pressing against him, but not penetrating him, and pulled away from the kiss to look into Loki's eyes. Veles smirked at him and lowered down onto Loki, bringing a groan from them both, and stopping when Loki was in completely.

"You can tell me anything, Lo," Veles told him breathlessly. Loki locked eyes with Veles, grunting when he lifted and then quickly thrust back down. Instead of replying, Loki just gripped Veles' hips and took charge, quickening their thrusts and getting louder groans and grunts from Veles.

It wasn't longer before they both pushed the reasons that had brought them together to the backs of their minds, both choosing to lose themselves in the pleasure of their combined magic flowing over their joined bodies, increasing the intensity and making them both gasp and moan. Loki's grip on Veles' hips tightened as his own thrusts started to get quicker, as Veles pressed almost completely against his chest, pressing open mouthed kisses to his neck as he clung to his shoulders.

Loki groaned when Veles nipped and bit at his collarbone, his hand moving to tangle into Loki's hair. He could feel the tremble in Veles' thighs as his moans became louder and more hitched, signalling to Loki that he was close. Loki looked at Veles when he pulled back from nibbling at Loki's neck, grunting when Veles practically fell forward to press a messy, open-mouthed kiss to his lips. Loki groaned and let his head drop back to the couch as he felt his climax start in the hot curl of his stomach, even as Veles cried out with his own orgasm, muscles clamping down on Loki and finally ripping Loki's orgasm out of him.

Loki huffed when Veles slumped against his chest bonelessly, breathing just as heavily as Loki was. He felt Veles slowly relax his hand from where it was clenched in Loki's hair and moved his head to rest against Loki's neck. Loki moved his arms to wrap them around Veles' waist, gently rubbing up and down his back, and nuzzling his face into Veles' hair.

"I'll always be there for you, should you ever need to talk," Veles whispered, breath brushing against Loki's skin and making him shiver. Together, they shifted and Veles groaned when Loki slowly pulled out of him, his breath hitched when a wave of magic washed over them, cleaning them both.

"I got fed up of the fighting. I had to leave," Loki murmured into Veles' hair, closing his eyes and tightening his arms around Veles at the pain his memories brought. Veles shifted and kissed Loki's jaw, rubbing a hand up and down his chest soothingly. Loki sighed, relaxing into Veles, and steeled himself to tell Veles the reason why he left Heaven behind.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

**Fifty-Four Years Earlier**

Loki was bored. Nothing exciting had so far happened in the nineteenth century and he was beginning to ponder over smiting random people just for shits and giggles. He'd taken to wandering around aimlessly and trying to find new people to play tricks on.

And hide from Kali. Apparently she felt he had done something wrong – again – and was out for his blood. She was a very scary goddess when she got it into her head that you'd wronged her in some way.

The only thing he could think of that he actually _had_ done wrong was avoiding her and actually hiding from her that one time in 1786. He didn't think that was all that good a reason to want to torture him slowly. She was psychotic. He was certain he wasn't the only sane person around that hid from her.

Besides that though, he had nothing else to do. And so he was bored. Which was never a good thing. Even back when he was in Heaven, his brothers knew to keep him occupied and never let him get bored. A bored Loki – or Gabriel – was a dangerous and annoying thing.

It also gave him the time to think. Which was what he was doing that moment whilst also sitting, legs swinging, on the edge of London Bridge, watching the people construct the new London Bridge just upstream of where he was. If anyone were to ask him, he never actually saw anything wrong with the old one, besides the fact that it was falling apart. He still didn't see the need to build a new one. Humans confused him sometimes.

Whilst absently watching them build the new – unneeded – bridge ahead of him, Loki considered what he was doing. Which brought his musings around to Veles, as his thoughts so very often did. Not for the first time he considered telling Veles the truth about who he was, but he didn't know how to go about it.

He was also, possibly, a little scared to do so. He truly had no idea how the God would react to the news.

Scoffing quietly to himself, Loki stood up and hopped off the wall he'd been sitting on, shaking his head at his thoughts. He wasn't going to tell Veles. It was a stupid thought and was just giving him a headache. He barely even knew the God. It would be foolish of him to just tell him his darkest secret. Not even Kali knew the truth. No one did.

Loki glanced back to the nearly finished bridge and breathed a deep sigh, closing his eyes and then opening them again with a huff. He would just carry on as he always had done.

With that decided, Loki gave a decisive nod, clicked his fingers and disappeared on the hunt for his next victim. Behind him, the workers on the new London Bridge gave scared yells as the brick work they had been working on, caved away and feel into the river below them.

* * *

"_I told you not to let go!__" Gabriel felt himself gasp as he was brought back into… it wasn't consciousness, but he was aware once more. Not that he was entirely sure that was a good thing. Whatever was happening, wasn't going well. Even Gabriel could work that out. _

"_Quit using the voice! It gives me jaw ache!" Gabriel wished he could laugh, as he felt exactly the same way. _

"_Sorry, now, this time, don't let go."_

* * *

**Thirty-Seven Years Earlier**

Loki was confused and lonely. And homesick. He'd never admit it out loud, but he missed Heaven, he missed his brothers and he missed his Father. He was feeling out of sorts and so he went to the one place that seemingly always helped him to get his thoughts back into order.

It struck him as a little amusing that, for him, the one place he could feel closest to his Father was a place mankind had created. He moved to the same place he normally sat, against the wall underneath in famous painting my Michelangelo. Loki had actually sat in that spot watching the artist as he worked for years, and he still came to the same spot whenever he just needed… to rest.

He sighed softly in relief as he felt the tension that had been building up for centuries in him just slowly start to leave him. He felt his Father's conscience brush over him soothingly and smiled softly to himself, settling in to stay there until he felt ready to leave once more. The visitors and cardinals would ignore him unless he chose for them to do otherwise, so no one would bother him.

"Loki?"

Which was why he was a little shocked to hear someone called his name in a distinctly Norse accent a few days into his reminiscing. He was actually a little grateful for the interruption – no matter how unexpected it was – as his thoughts had slowly been getting more and more maudlin.

Looking up, Loki gaped in slight surprise when he saw Veles looking at him. He quickly stood up, brushing himself down before turning to fully face the other Trickster. He wondered why on earth Veles was there of all places.

"What are you doing here?" Loki finally blurted out, his curiosity becoming too much to contain, and finally breaking the silence that had fallen between them – confused on Veles' part, stunned on Loki's.

"Er… _where_ is here?" Veles asked him, looking around the chapel in appreciation, though Loki smiled a little at the hint of confusion still being given off of the God.

"The Sistine Chapel in Vatican City," Loki told him quietly, not wanting to totally break the calm that the chapel gave out by speaking any louder. Veles just glanced at him briefly and then nodded silently, looking up at the ceiling that was the reason for so many visits.

"Okay. Er… why? And… Lo, what's wrong? You haven't once demanded anything sugary, or even smiled. Are you alright?" Veles asked him, giving Loki a look of such genuine concern that Loki took a step back in shock. He wasn't used to people actually caring about him anymore. He held back the instinctive urge to flinch when Veles placed a hand on his arm, stopping him from backing up even more.

"I'm fine, Veles. I just like this place. It's… peaceful," Loki told him, not completely lying though he admittedly wasn't being entirely truthful either. Loki looked up at the painted ceiling and nibbled his lip as he realised just how much he missed his Father at that moment. He wished he could go back in time – which, to be fair, he could – and catch his Father before he abandoned them – which he couldn't.

"Yeah… I guess it is. I wonder… I wonder if their God ever feels disappointment over what his children have done to each other," Veles muttered, making Loki drag his eyes away from the painting to look at Veles staring at the other people wandering around the large chapel room. Loki frowned and nibbled his lip, clearly he wasn't the only one having a personal crisis.

"He does," Loki finally told him, feeling as weary as he probably sounded and just wondering if it was worth it. He wondered how good an idea it would be to just admit to Veles who he was. One less secret to hide would surely get rid of some of the stress and depression he was feeling. Or it could just makes things worse for him. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Veles look at him questioningly, and expanded on his answer, "what god doesn't? I'm lucky, I don't have any worshippers. I'm just feared as being someone that will put a person in their place. But for this God and all other gods that have given a part of themselves to the humans? Who wouldn't feel disappointment and shame? All they do… all they do is kill one another. For petty reasons."

"It's free will. They all have it, and they all abuse it. Free will… it makes people go crazy. They are filled with all these _emotions_ and they… they don't know how to express them. Unfortunately that means that most choose to express them through violence," Veles said with a sneer, and Loki finally dragged himself away from his own issues and decided to help Veles, who clearly needed someone to talk to about something. Why else would he hunt down Loki? Well, unless Loki's accidently fucked something up and Veles was just waiting for him to relax in his presence and then torture and/or kill him.

"Why are you so depressed? Why did you come to find me?" He asked Veles, looking over at Veles briefly before turning his eyes back to the other people who were appreciating the place and completely unaware that they were in the presence of two gods.

"I came to the realisation that… no matter what I do, my people will twist it and do something that will anger me and make me regret what I gave to them," Veles admitted with a heavy sigh, not looking at Loki and Loki didn't really think he was seeing the people in front of them either, "they felt they needed to slaughter an innocent to appease me. I'm… they seem to think their God is some fearful being that will strike them down in fury if they should put one foot wrong, but they don't get what it is that angers me."

"Huh, do they have a reason for believing that?" Loki asked him, and he couldn't help but wonder just how powerful a god Veles was. He was beginning to think that Veles was possibly a monotheistic God. If he was though, Loki couldn't understand why he would be content just hanging around talking to Loki of all people. Loki shifted a little, then slid down the wall to sit on the floor, he got the feeling this could be a long conversation and he wanted to be comfortable for it. Veles glanced at him, then joined him on the floor, shrugging when Loki glanced at him for an answer. With another sigh, Veles dragged a frustrated hand through his hair and then down his face before finally answering him.

"I punished a country for what they did to others," Veles whispered, then frowned, hands clenching into fists, "other than that, nothing! I tend to stay out of most things; I learnt that lesson decades ago. Now… now I will just take the troubled and lost souls on to their destination," Veles finished with a small shrug. Loki sighed and shifted to lean against Veles in an attempt to give him some comfort. He certainly wasn't one to judge Veles' ideas on how to deal with his people.

"So what is the domain of the God of Death like?" Loki asked him instead, deciding to change the subject slightly to a more light-heart – he hoped – topic. Of course, he knew what one domain looked like. Hel's underworld was actually quite tastefully done. He rather liked it when he went there to visit his daughter. Veles chuckled and moved to rest his head on Loki's shoulder, Loki actually didn't know what he had done to deserve it, but he truly hoped with all his being that he never did anything to mess up the relationship he had with Veles.

"Nice. I like it. I'll show you it one day," Veles told him, and Loki's smile grew wider at the promise. The two of them then fell into a peaceful silence, watching the people pass though the building, until, as one, they both stood up and disappeared to different destinations.

* * *

**Forty-Seven Years Earlier**

Loki was in a small village in Germany, he'd had an eye on one of the residents of the village for a couple of weeks now and had decided to finally strike. The man had been acting like he owned everyone in the village ever since he had claimed to have hunted the wolves that had terrorised the village during the previous winter. He hadn't, but he hadn't told anyone that, and was using his power to be lazy whilst also live in a luxury that wasn't his to live. And he really annoyed Loki.

He had decided on the perfect punishment for him, and it had had the bonus of him getting to see at least one of his children again, it had been a while. He called for Fenrir, and grinned when he arrived, yipping in pleasure and bowling Loki down to the ground, slobbering over him both in sheer joy of getting to see his father once more, and also, Loki felt, as a punishment for Loki having not met up with any of his children for a good couple of centuries. He did feel a little bad about that. Actually, he felt awful about it and endeavoured not to go so long before the next visit. And to also go check on Sleipnir.

"Okay, Fenrir. I'm sorry, stop it! Stop drooling on me! Change back. Stop it!" Loki grumbled, pushing the over-grown puppy off of him, and then smirking when Fenrir huffed before he shifted into a tall – which was just unfair, why was he so short? – broad-shoulder man and glared playfully down at his father.

"Father. Anything you need me for?" Fenrir asked, holding out his hand for Loki to take, and then pulling him up to stand when Loki took it. Loki brushed his clothes of dirt, smoothing them down and then looked up at his son, smiling softly at him.

"How have you been?"

"Alright. Me and Jorgie have been keeping an eye on Nir, and Hel has made a visit or two to make sure he's been okay as well. How about you?" Fenrir asked him, moving to lean against a tree and crossing his arms over

"I've been well. But enough about how we've been. We should get to why I called you here, if you don't mind working with me on this," Loki said, and Fenrir grinned mischievously at him, which Loki took as an agreement to help. "So, how'd you feel about putting the fear of Thor into an annoying man who hates wolves?"

* * *

The next morning, after having spent a couple of hours with all four of his remaining children, Loki went back to the house of his latest victim. Fenrir had made sure to make a suitable mess and leave no evidence other than a torn-apart body and a wrecked house. He was rather proud of the end result and of his son's resourcefulness.

However, upon walking up to the house, he felt a strange, yet familiar magic wash over him, making him realise that there was someone else at the scene of the trick, and it was someone he had previously met before at some point. He just couldn't quite think who it was, or could be. It wasn't any of the other tricksters that he knew, he knew that much, so that meant it was someone else. Someone there for another reason.

He walked into the house, smirking smugly when he realised that the body had been taken away at some point that morning, and then looked at the short – shorter than him, it was saying something – black haired man standing in the centre of the room. A black haired man that he remembered and, to be completely honest, was surprised hadn't aged.

At all.

"Well… you weren't a very bizarre dream of mine," Loki said, smirking when Veles shrieked in shock and then spun around, choking on whatever was in his mouth and looking through the tears gathering in his eyes at him.

"You! This… you? What? Who _are_ you? _What_ are you? You're not one of my people!" Veles exclaimed, making Loki wonder what in God's name he was talking about and if the small man in front of him had some strange delusions of grandeur. Loki ignored that, however, and just smirked at Veles, leaning on the doorframe.

"I told you. I'm Loki. Don't tell me you forgot about our night of passion. It was magical. It was awe inspiring. It was the best night of your life. It was also the first time I ever passed out. Those wizarding folk make some brilliantly strong drinks. Got to commend them on that," Loki added absently, then he locked eyes with Veles. His smirk grew wider when Veles gaped at him, and then shook his head.

"Thank you," he deadpanned, and then sighed and rolled his eyes, "what are you? You haven't aged at all since I last saw you, over thirty years ago! So? And how have you got magic. I didn't give you any," Veles added, narrowing his eyes Loki, which made Loki narrow his eyes back in return, having no clue what he meant by that.

"_You_ give me magic? Why would _you_ give me my magic?"

"Just answer my questions, you infuriating man! And stop answering them with more bloody questions!" Veles demanded and Loki chuckled, and pushed off the wall, walking over to stand in front of Veles and looking down at him slightly. Which he felt very happy about, as it really didn't happen that often.

"I'm Loki, the Norse Trickster god. I enjoy… messing with people's minds. Didn't work on you though. I tried, I really did, just… fell flat. It was a little annoying. Now, back to my questions, what are you, and what did you mean by you didn't give me my magic?" Loki asked, standing close enough to Veles that he could feel the heat radiating from his body and feel his own body start to react to the close proximity. He was possibly also reacting to the fact that their magic seemed to be curling around each other. It was baffling. Not just because that wasn't supposed to happen.

Actually, mostly just because that wasn't supposed to happen.

"Veles, Trickster God of Magic and Death, and protector of souls. I choose who gets magic and who doesn't, normally. But I guess, being another god, that you got given it by the same people that gave me mine," Veles told him, and Loki kept his face blank, not giving away anything about the origin of his own 'magic'.

"Possibly. Another Trickster god, huh? I have competition! Can't have that!" Loki told him, grinning and placing a hand on Veles' waist, which just made Veles narrow his eyes at him and press back like he wanted to step away. Loki's grin possibly got a little more smug when Veles didn't actually do so.

"I am also a God of Death, do not annoy me, Loki," Veles warned him, and then placed a hand on Loki's chest, which stopped Loki from getting any closer, though given they were practically pressed against one another, Loki really wasn't seeing to point behind it. And the threat really didn't do much either. Well, it turned him on a little more.

"Ah, you don't scare me. You're tiny," Loki told him and then leant forward slightly so that his mouth was by Veles' ear, "and I know how to make you beg."

"Ack! Don't try to seduce me! I don't trust you to not… do something nefarious or something." Loki chuckled when Veles looked up at him with narrowed eyes, leaning back a little so he could clearly look up at Loki. The novelty of that never actually getting old with Loki. Judging by the annoyed expression on Veles' face, he was just as annoyed by his short stature as Loki normally was by his own.

"Aw, nefarious? Why… that's practically against my nature! I wouldn't know how to be… nefarious!" Loki told him with wide eyes and pout, which sadly just made Veles scoff at him. He never had gotten that trick down. His fledgling had been much better at the innocent, naïve eyes.

"You're a damned Trickster god. Your very being is nefarious. And your eyes are too close together. Sure sign of nefarious… ness." Loki mentally conceded that he had a point there. Well, maybe not about his eyes. They were perfectly spaced.

"Nefariousness? Is that even a word?"

"Yes. Don't argue with me. Don't make me drag your soul down to my underworld and leave it there for all of eternity," Veles warned him. Loki just smirked at him, ignoring the flaring magic and just pressing closer, despite the hand Veles had on his chest, which, really, was just feeling him up by this point.

"Ooh, don't be making promises now. What shall you do to me when you get me to your lair? Will it be… nefarious?" Loki asked him, moving a hand to curl around the back of Veles neck and moving to press his nose to the patch of skin behind his ear. He heard Veles gasp, then quickly try to cover the reaction with a cough, which just made Loki smirk. His smirk just grew when Veles gave a feeble shove to his chest.

"Loki… look, we wouldn't work out. We're both too… different," Veles told him in a shaky voice, stopping in his attempts to push Loki away. Loki grinned wolfishly at the god and chuckled. Hook, line and sinker.

"Different? We're both Tricksters! How is that different?" Loki asked him, scratching his nails slightly against Veles' neck and giving an inner-cackle when Veles' breath hitched. Loki took a small step back from Veles and turned the god's head so that their noses were brushing lightly.

"We're… we shouldn't… what was I saying?" Veles asked, and Loki chuckled when Veles looked up at him and finally moved to touch Loki in a positive manner by tangling his fingers into Loki's hair. Loki moved tilted his head back a little to press against the fingers, almost purring at the feeling.

"You were agreeing that my idea to go back to my place is a brilliant one," Loki told him, lowering his head a little more and pressing his lips against Veles', just in case the stubborn god tried to deny it. A muffled squeak against his lips was all the protest Veles gave, but it was soon countered by Veles fisting his hand in Loki's hair and pressing closer to him, moaning and Loki took advantage of his parted lips and thrusting his tongue inside.

"I agree. Brilliant idea. Let's go now," Veles gasped out when Loki pulled back a little, lips still brushing as they stared at each other with darkened eyes. Loki pressed a sharp kiss to his lips and then moved his hand from Veles' neck and clicked his fingers.

A second later, and Loki had taken them back to the house he was currently inhabiting. The actual owners having had an unfortunate accident with a large mother bear and some sharp sticks. It was actually the same house he had taken Veles too all those years before. One could almost say he was feeling nostalgic. He didn't give Veles much time to notice that fact however, as he soon began to nibble at the soft skin of Veles' neck, causing Veles to groan and cling to his shoulders to keep standing.

Loki let Veles push his robes off of his shoulders, helping him to shrug out of his own robes, but not really helping him all that much, preferring to pay more attention to the delicious skin he was licking and nibbling at. When their robes dropped to the floor and pooled around their feet, Loki barely gave them much notice, but nipped sharply at Veles' neck when Veles dragged his nails down Loki's chest. Loki decided to up the game and moved to dip his own hand down the back of Veles' trousers.

Loki moaned when Veles moved and kissed him deeply, he could feel Veles' fingers untying the ties on his shirt, before he pushed it off of him. Loki groaned in the back of his throat when Veles moved away, but the groan was cut off and changed from disappointment to lust when Veles started to press kisses to Loki's chest as his skin was revealed. Loki glanced down at Veles in time to see Veles wink at him and smirk against his skin when he deliberately tangled Loki's hands in his shirt sleeves. He then pulled down on the shirt, forcing Loki's arms to straighten behind his back, and making Loki gasp out a chuckle.

"Knew you were kinky."

"Knew you couldn't shut up," Veles muttered as he backed Loki over to the bed and then pushing him down on to it, smirking down at him, when Loki just stared at him in sheer lust. "I should make a gag." Loki just groaned and arched up a little at the threat, making Veles leer at him.

"Didn't think you were that kinky," Loki told him, smirking even as he fidgeted to try and get comfy, whilst still being trapped. He wasn't really going to make much of an effort to get loose. He really liked this part of Veles. Drunken sex hadn't even let him see a small inkling of how kinky Veles could be, apparently. Loki bite back the groan he wanted to let out when Veles winked at him, making a black tie appear in his right hand, whilst the shirt vanished leaving Loki free and Veles moved to straddle him. However, before Loki could actually do anything, Veles tied the cloth around his wrists and then connected them to the cast iron headboard. "Thought that was a gag," Loki admitted, though he wasn't actually all that disappointed by the actual use of it.

"You want a gag? I can make one of those for you, dear," Veles told him in a sugary sweet voice, making Loki shift and narrow his eyes at Veles warningly. So he may have a lied a little. He liked talking. Even during sex.

"Will you do something?" Loki muttered, then frowned when he tried to get rid of his binds and nothing happened, "and how have you blocked my magic? How did you do that?" Loki struggled and tugged at the binds around his wrists. Finally he stopped and just gaped at a grinning Veles.

"God of Magic," Veles reminded him in a sing-song tone, wiggling his fingers at him and smirking when Loki's eyes widened in realisation. The realisation that he was pretty much fucked. In both ways hopefully. "So now… you have no choice but to let me take control." Veles moved to rub their crotches together and moaned when Loki finally decided to take a little control and thrust up into him. Veles groaned and waved his hand, getting rid of their trousers and making them both gasp at the sensation, Loki arching up to try and get more friction.

Loki tilted his head up a little to meet Veles and crushed their lips together, moaning into Veles' mouth as he rubbed against him and tugged on his binds, trying to get free. He felt Veles grip his hair tightly, and Loki arched up into, twisting and pressing his tongue against Veles'.

Loki gasped a little and arched up even more when he felt Veles wrap his fingers around his erection and cover it with lube. Veles pulled back from the kiss, making Loki try to follow him, then drop back onto the bed with a groan. He nearly choked on his groan seconds later, when Veles shifted and moved so that the tip of Loki's erection was just penetrating him. Loki gasped and locked eyes with Veles, who just smirked at him and raised an eyebrow.

"Should I move?"

"You're evil! Move!" Loki gasped out; thrusting up as far as he could and making Veles gasp. He then met Loki's thrust and soon Loki was fully inside. Loki groaned, and yanked at his ties, watching Veles shut his eyes and moan loudly, not moving. Loki stayed as still as he could, allowing Veles to adjust to him, before it became too much and the need to move rose to uncomfortable heights. "Move."

Veles opened his eyes and then moved, slowly pulling up and leaning forward to bite Loki's bottom lip. Loki groaned and jerked when Veles moaned telling Loki he'd just hit the God's prostate. Veles leant forward and pressed a quick kiss to Loki's lips, but sat back before Loki could deepen it. He moved his hands to lean them against Loki's chest, biting his bottom lip as he and the trickster god began to move faster, making the magic in both of them slowly begin to rise and clash. Veles cried out, dragging his nails down Loki's chest, making the other man groan and throw his head back, thrusting up sharply and getting a gasp from Veles.

Loki tugged at the bonds around his wrist, and then stopped when he felt his orgasm rushing through him, curling his toes and making him thrust up into Veles, just as the other god cried out and arched his back, eyes clenched shut as he too climaxed.

They stayed like that for a few moments before Veles slumped forward onto Loki's chest, letting his magic run over them to clean them and also get rid of the tie around Loki's wrists. Loki brought his arms down and wrapped them around Veles' waist tightly. They moved until they were lying on their sides, cuddled together, Veles hissing slightly when Loki pulled out and then moving to entangle their legs.

They lay like that, basking in the others magic humming under their skin, for a few hours. Neither one having the need to sleep, and just lying in silence, enjoying the after glow. After a few hours, however, Veles shifted and moved to sit up in the bed, making Loki open his eyes to look at him questioningly.

"I've got to go," Veles muttered to Loki as he got out of the bed, pressing a kiss to Loki's lips. Loki leant up on an elbow and made Veles moan loudly when he dragged his nails down Veles' chest. "No, gotta go. Sorry. If I bump into you again, we should definitely do this again," Veles told him, pressing another kiss to his lips and then turning around and getting out of the bed.

"Well… I may have a way for you to find me. Should you need me," Loki added hastily, when Veles turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow. He wasn't too sure why he was going to do this, but for some reason he didn't feel like it was a bad idea.

"And how is that, exactly?" Veles as him, and Loki floundered for a second and then smirked. He noticed Veles bite his lip, clearly holding himself back from jumping back into bed with Loki, and Loki's smirk just grew wider

"Well…." Loki drawled, before sitting up in bed properly and clicking his fingers. A white feather appeared in his hands, and he smiled softly at it for a few seconds, actually missing Heaven a little, before he shook himself out of his nostalgia and handed it to a curious looking Veles.

"What is it?"

"A feather!" Loki told him with a cheeky grin, and Veles shot him a withering glare. "Fine, fine. Let's just call it my calling card and leave it at that. You hold that and think of me, you should be able to find me, or I'll find you. Either one."

"Right… and this will work?"

"You don't trust me?"

"No." Veles told him and Loki just smiled at him widely.

"Probably a good thing. Just use it, don't use it. Up to you. But don't throw it away. Keep it on you. Please? It's kinda important. Don't just give it away or something," Loki told him, silently hoping that Veles would listen to him and starting to wonder if his plan had been all that wise. Veles shot him a narrow-eyed look, then looked at the feather in his hands.

"I'll keep it safe. I really have to go now though. See you around, Loki."

* * *

"_This will work, right? We're not completely screwing up everything that we've ever created, are we?" Gabriel frowned at the concern in the younger voice, and mentally screamed his frustration at not being able to see or even remember who the voice belonged to. _

"_Are you prepared for if it does? Do you really want to stop this?" _

"_No." _

"_Then the questions don't need to be answered."_

* * *

**Thirty-Six Years Earlier**

Loki sat at the bar in a small pub in Wizarding Italy, slowly drinking the highly sweet and sugary concoction he had convinced the bartender to make for him. He'd found out about these strange little, seemingly godless people a century or two ago and had decided that he really did rather like them. But, given the questionable state of their deity, and whether or not they actually had one, made him leery of tricking any of them.

Plus, they were magical, which made Loki at least want to consider how he'd trick them first before he did so. If that had taken him two centuries, then so be it. No one ever said he rushed into things. Well, okay, a fair few people said he rushed into things without giving them any thought. Still, this time, he wouldn't. Tricking people that could turn their enemies into newts and then use them for potions would be a complex thing. They would be hard to impress. He just knew it. Awkward bastards.

Still, he really did enjoy their alcoholic drinks. They actually had the ability to make him a little tipsy. Or completely off his head, if he was being totally honest.

He watched silently as a short man wandered into the pub, wearing a long, dark blue robe. Loki watched the dark haired man with narrowed eyes, noticing how the mans skin seemed to have an unearthly glow that just wasn't human in the least. If he was pressured into it, he'd admit that he thought that this man was possibly more than he seemed.

Which was part of the reason for his uncertainty on whether or not these unusual people had a god or two. He couldn't tell. Their magic fucked with his senses completely, and then they went ahead and made the most random products to give them ethereal appearances.

Though admittedly, it _was_ normally the females that used these potions, but the strange young man was really pulling the glowy skin off. However, he looked exhausted and drained, and Loki couldn't help but feel an urge to find out what had happened to make him look like that.

He shot a glance at the bartender cleaning a glass – which had been the same glass he had been cleaning since Loki had turned up a good hour before – and then turned his attention back to the other man. Who was actually quite attractive.

And men couldn't be quite as volatile in a relationship as females, could they? Loki had learnt that lesson from Kali, psychotic harpy that she was. Shuddering, Loki snapped back to attention when he heard the stranger speak.

"Whatever you have that is strongest, please," the strange young wizard told the bartender, and then he let his head fall down onto the bar with a rather large thump when the bartender just nodded his head and turned to get him his drink. Loki decided to make his presence known, because really, if anyone needed cheering up, it was clearly this man.

"Whoo! Whatever is wrong in your life, surely it can't be bad enough to pickle your liver!" Loki exclaimed, and the man turned to look at him, blinking in shock a little before he frowned in confusion, clearly wondering why Loki was talking to him. Loki just shot him a wide smile and moved to sit on the stool next to the man.

"How about genocide?" So that wasn't exactly what Loki was expecting to hear, and to be fair, he wasn't too sure on how to deal with that. Plus, surely he would have heard about a small matter of genocide, right? Maybe the man was exaggerating a little. Maybe it was just er… ritual slaughter?

"Really? Huh, in that case, I'll have what he's having," Loki stated, having decided to maybe accept it as it was, and besides, even ritual slaughter brought a strong need to forget. The bartender gaped at him, then shrugged and turned to make the drink for the second time. "So what's your name?"

"Why?" The stranger asked suspiciously, looking at him with narrowed eyes, then downing the drink and wincing at the taste, making Loki wonder what it was he'd just asked for when his own drink was placed in front of him, "another, please." If that was the case, then surely it couldn't be that bad.

"So suspicious, if it helps, I'll tell you my name!" Loki told him cheerfully, downing his own drink and then choking in surprise as it fizzed its way down the back of his throat then felt like it was _growing_ something when it settled in his stomach. Settled possibly wasn't the right word to use for what was happening however. "What in God's name was that?"

"Which God?" The man asked dryly, making Loki turn to look at him with wide, amused eyes, clearly there was a story behind that question.

"Which God would you like? I'll be your God, if you wish," Loki told him with a lascivious wink, making the other man snort and then shake his head in amusement at him. Loki mentally cheered for finally getting the stranger to smile, maybe he could get his name next, or at least how the hell he's glowing.

"I follow no god," the man informed him, then took his second of the strange, fizzy-stomach-monster-spawning drink from the now wary looking bartender with a smile and turned on his stool to fully face Loki. "I go by Veles."

"Veles? Great to meet you! I'm Loki!" Loki said, holding out his hand for Veles to take, which he did, cautiously, and shook it. He forced himself not to show his shock when he felt a shock of lightning run down his spine when they touched. That was new.

"Good to meet you, too. Why are you drinking the same things I am? What do you wish to forget?" Veles asked him as he took a sip from his new drink, and then looked at Loki sitting next to him with shrewd eyes. Loki just smiled wide and unerringly, shaking his head.

"Nothing! I've actually had a fine day! Caused some chaos, had a good laugh, found a new sweet treat! You should try it! It's called chocolate." Loki told him, feeling his excitement as he remembered the milky sweet treat he had discovered earlier, and looking at Veles, hoping this new man would share his love of sugary treats. Though he wasn't too sure why he hoped that, nor was he going to look into possible reasons for it.

"Chocklit?" Veles asked, slightly mispronouncing it, which made Loki's lips twitch in amusement, before Veles raised an eyebrow and Loki nodded enthusiastically in his seat. He then began to rummage around in his dark brown robes – which he'd bought just for the sake of fitting in – for the chocolate, pulling out a small, crinkled paper bag with a triumphant noise when he found it.

"Here!" Loki said, offering the bag to Veles, who eyed him (and the bag) warily and then pulled out a small ball of chocolate from the bag, looking at it with a small frown on his face and making Loki chuckle at his hesitance.

"What is it?" Veles asked him, still looking at the treat warily, rolling it between his fingers lightly. Loki rolled his eyes, wondering if the other man was waiting for it to do something spectacular right before his eyes or something.

"Eat it! Go on!" Loki urged him, making an encouraging motion with his hands, which just seemingly made Veles even more suspicious of the chocolate.

"Why are you offering a complete stranger food?" Veles asked him cautiously, once more looking down at the dark brown chocolate ball in his hands. Loki was actually a little taken aback by the question, because part of him had been asking the same question and he still didn't know the answer. Instead of answering – either Veles or his own mind – he huffed and took the chocolate from Loki's hands. He then, before Veles could do anything to stop him, stuffed the chocolate into Veles' mouth and pushed his mouth shut with a gentle finger under his chin. Really, he wasn't going to waste any chocolate whilst Veles decided whether or not Loki was trying to poison him or something.

Loki grinned widely when Veles looked at him with wide, shocked eyes. Then Loki quickly placed his hand over Veles' mouth when it looked like the man was possibly going to spit the chocolate out. Veles narrowed his eyes at Loki, who just grinned even wider, and then Loki gave a mental cheer when he stated to chew at it, then practically cackles when Veles gave a moan of pleasure.

"Good, isn't it? I think I have found my reason to carry on in this world!" Loki told him, smiled widely when Veles opened his eyes and gave a slightly nod. Deciding he really had no other reason to keep it there, Loki then removed his hand from Veles' mouth and spent a microsecond to wonder why he felt disappointed over the loss of contact.

"It's very good. But doesn't help me forget. Which is why I'm here. Barkeep! Two more of those smoking drinky things! And er… whatever the man beside me wants," Veles demanded of the shocked bartender, making Loki chuckle before smothering it when the stunned bartender turned to look at Loki, still a little dazed. Clearly still standing after having one or two of the drinks wasn't something that was normal. Which Loki could understand, given he was beginning to feel a little tipsy already. It normally took him a good couple hours of non-stop drinking to even feel a little light-headed.

"Sir?" The bartender asked, making Loki snap out of his daze of trying to think back to the last time he had actually managed to get drunk. He was fairly certain it involved Odin.

"Ah, whatever he's drinking is good with me!" Loki told him with a wide smile, digging another chocolate from his bag and popping it into his mouth. The bartender nodded his head, and with a weary sigh, turned back to making drinks.

Four and a half hours later and more drinks than the bartender ever wanted to sell in his whole career, Loki and Veles were well on their way to forgetting pretty much everything. Except the fact that chocolate was good and they had run out of it three hours previously.

"Youateallmychocolate," Loki slurred, mentally congratulating the wizarding world for getting him absolutely off his head. He waved the bartender down and blearily pointed in the general direction of where he was sure his empty glass was, hoping that the man would get the hint, and smiling widely, or at least he thought he did, he _attempted_ to at least.

"More, sir?" That was certainly a positive hint that at least Loki's vague rambling motions were at least interpreted correctly by the man. Though, Loki considered, the man likely dealt with drunken people on a regular basis.

"Yez'pleeze," Loki told him, nodding his head vigorously, before stopping and moving his hand to grip at his hair tightly when it felt like something was trying to escape from his head in the most painful and fastest route possible. "Ow."

"Dun move. 'Urts," Veles told Loki from his slumped position at the bar, and Loki blinked at him dazedly, wondering when the other man became so wise, or if he had always been that smart. Because not moving sounded like the best idea he'd ever heard. "S'more f'me to," Veles added when the barman glanced at him warily, clearly not too sure if he wanted to ask but feeling it was his job, the man sighed when he got the response however, but turned to make their drinks.

"You glow. How'd'you do tha'?" Loki asked as he squinted at Veles, which, given he'd been wondering it since Veles had walked in, really shouldn't have been too surprising he asked it. Though it wasn't what he thought he was going to ask Veles, who made a drunken, uncoordinated attempt to shrug at the question, but actually looked like he had lost control of his limbs for a brief moment.

"S'oo y'am," Veles muttered as he looked at his hand for a good five minutes intently, he then looked over at Loki, narrowing his eyes and tilting his head slightly. "So d'you."

"I do?" Loki asked him in shock, looking down at his own hands and then frowning when he didn't see anything glowy about himself. Sure he had been an angel and they… glowed. Really bright. Like… burn your eyeballs out of your socket bright, but his vessel didn't. He didn't quite get what Veles was apparently seeing. "Don't see't."

"I do. You glow. S'all bright 'n'… shit," Veles finished lamely, limply waving his hand in Loki's general direction and then slumping even further over the bar, grabbing the drink that had magically appeared next to him. Loki really didn't recall them getting their drinks. One had appeared next to him as well. Magic was _awesome_.

"Huh. M'I pretty?" Loki asked, still looking at his hand and really trying to make himself glow, because Veles was really pulling the glowing look off. Clearly it was a mind thing. He was certain he'd be able to glow if he put his mind to it. He was awesome at putting his mind to things. He was so gonna glow by the end of the night.

"Yup," Veles agreed, nodding his head and making Loki practically beam at him, then he slid off his stool and moved to stand right next to Veles. Feeling the hotter than normal body heat from Veles against his own skin.

"You're pretty too," Loki told him with a firm nod. He then surged forward and kissed Veles, missing his mouth slightly and getting the corner but he figured that was as good as anywhere to get the message across that they should really go somewhere where they could see if they glowed all over. With less clothes. He felt Veles' eyelashes brush against his cheek when the man blinked in surprise, before he turned his head and pressing his lips fully against Loki's. When Veles pulled back from the kiss a moment later, he looked at Loki and grinned.

"We should go s'm'ere private," Veles told him and Loki nodded his head eagerly, because he was totally down with that idea. That idea had the high chance of leading to something even more awesome than this night already had been. And nakedness. Which was also awesome.

"Yeah, you should. Leave my bar before you scar any more of punters for life with your bizarre stories," Loki and Veles both turned to look at the barman, and Loki didn't know about Veles, but he had no idea what the man was talking about, there was nothing bizarre about his stories. He then snapped his fingers whilst Veles winked and they both disappeared from the bar, leaving chaos behind them.

Loki watched Veles sway a little and then blink when he took in the large bedroom Loki had taken them to. It was his master bedroom in the house he normally stayed in whilst he was tricking people in Italy, though was, admittedly, a little further away from where they had started the night. Grinning at Veles, who finally looked like he had mastered control over his stomach and was no longer in danger of throwing up everything they had eaten and drunk that day, Loki placed his hands on Veles' chest and shoved him onto the bed behind him, chuckling when Veles squawked in surprise and flailed when he fell. He lay sprawled across the bed and glanced up at Loki who was standing over him, still smirking.

With a blink, both their clothes were gone, though admittedly Loki had no idea if that was a neat trick wizards learnt, or if his own magic was acting to his desires. He was possibly a touch too drunk to actually care, plus they were now both naked, so who _needed_ to care?

Loki crawled between Veles' legs, smirking at him, whilst Veles shuffled to lie on the bed completely, as opposed to hanging half off it.

"S'lube?" Veles asked huskily, looking at Loki kneeling between his legs with heavy-lidded, lust-darkened eyes. Loki decided that if Veles had enough wits about him to ask anything, then he was either too sober, or not turned on enough. Or both. Leering at Veles, Loki dipped his head down and licked up, from the base of Veles' erection and sucked lightly at the head, tasting pre-come spill over his tongue.

Loki chuckled lowly when Veles whimpered quietly as Loki lowered his head and took Veles into his mouth completely, silently boasting about his lack of gag-reflex, allowing him to take Veles deep into his throat. He moved to press Veles' hips down on to the bed, preventing him from thrusting up and causing Veles to whine in aroused distress. Loki moved one of his hands from Veles' hips to run his hands down the others thighs, and smirked around the erection in his mouth, sucking and bobbing his head in reward when Veles moved to spread his legs further apart. Loki then sucked hard on his erection at the same time as finally thrusting a lubricated finger into the other man, looking up through his lashes when Veles cried out in shock and thrust further down onto his fingers.

"S'goo—ack!" Veles cried out when Loki added another finger, stretching and curling his fingers, searching for the spot that would make Veles. Loki moved away from Veles' erection, making Veles moan more in disappointment

"You ready?" Loki asked him, still hastily preparing him and pushing a third finger in

and finally finding the bundle of nerves and pressing against them, chuckling when Veles yelled in pleasure and arched off the bed.

"M'ready! Pleez'ki!" Veles begged with a small whimper, and then smiling up at Loki a little drunkenly when Loki finally removed his fingers and moved Veles' legs over his shoulders. Loki locked eyes with Veles, and, upon getting a frantic nod, began to push inside him. He gasped and then groaned loudly at feeling the heat and tightness of Veles embrace him, and couldn't control himself as he thrust in all the way and made Veles grunt and arch up into him.

Loki paused slightly once he was inside to the hilt, allowing Veles the time to adjust. As soon as Veles nodded, Loki was quick to pull out almost entirely and then slam back in as hard and deep as he could, making Veles practically scream his pleasure, clenching around Loki and making Loki moan loudly as sparks erupted behind his closed eyelids.

Given the amount of alcohol both had imbibed and the state they were both in, it came as no surprise to either when they didn't last very long. Veles came first, crying out a garbled word that neither could understand, and Loki soon followed behind him, thrusting once more into Veles as he came with a wordless shout, and then collapsed heavily onto Veles.

"Muv," Veles muttered, weakly pushing at Loki's shoulder, tapping it when it seemingly had no effect. Loki grunted and shifted just enough that he wasn't smothering his bed partner any longer, pulling out as he shifted and making Veles twitch slightly before shifting to get a little more comfortable, still mostly covered by Loki, "thnkss."

The next morning, Loki grunted and opened his eyes, groaning in pain as soon as the bright sunlight burnt his retinas out of his skull and made him, for a brief second, think he'd been found by his brothers. He then remembered what he'd done the night before, reminded by the headache slamming into his skull and making his baulk slightly as he tried to keep his stomach contents in. It took him a couple of minutes to realise that he was alone in the bed and he threw his arm over his eyes to block out the light, still feeling pleasantly heavy-limbed from the previous nights activities.

"Those wizard people managed to get an angel drunk. I'm impressed. Knew I liked them for a reason," Loki muttered to himself, and had the vague thought of finding out Veles at another time, before he pushed it to the side and ignored it as a flight of fancy. No need to encourage a mortal into thinking he could have a relationship of any kind with him. It just wouldn't work.

* * *

"_Vel—"_

"_Shit! He spoke! How'd he speak?"_

* * *

**Thirty-Three Years Earlier**

Loki sneered at the people passing by him in London. He had thought things had been bad in Delhi, but that wasn't anything compared to how the people in the streets of London were being treated by their richer counterparts. Apparently, being rich made you immune to the Bubonic Plague that was sweeping through the back streets of London. Boy were they in for a surprise, Loki thought to himself, snarling wordlessly when another person bashed into him, then looked at his less than stellar appearance and took a wider step away from him, looking at him in disgust and crossing themselves. Yeah, because that was going to work. Loki was fairly certain he was more liked by God than they were right at this moment.

He made his way down Baker Street, and narrowed his eyes as he pondered over what to do, then smirked. Nothing said that, whilst teaching a lesson to all those that thought they were above the ill and scared – not to say the rich weren't scared – he couldn't also help everyone else. To be fair, it was about time that this plague business stopped, and short of using his Grace, he had to work with what he had.

It just helped that he would be killing two birds with one stone with the plan he had brewing in his mind. Deciding to wait until the opportune moment, and ignoring the niggling feeling of doubt and guilt over what he was about to do, he stood back into the shadows of an overhang of a shop.

When night fell and things in the bustling city became quieter and noises changed to less innocent shouts and yells, Loki stepped out from the shadows, closing his eyes to make sure that most people were asleep and giving a sharp nod when he was happy that enough were. He then snapped his fingers and made a small spark appear in the bakery opposite him.

He disappeared from the streets without a sound as the fire in the small bakery grew and soon overwhelmed the packed together, thatched houses. He may have destroyed lives and business, but at least he'd managed to also stop the worst of the plague.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

"_Whatever you do, you cannot let go of that." Gabriel felt something deep inside him pull and tug, then heard a groan that could possibly have come from him. He truly wanted to know what was going on now. _

"_Is this supposed to be happening?" Veles. Gabriel remembered the name of that voice. Veles. It made him feel calmer for some reason, though he wasn't too sure why. _

"_I don't know. You tell me." _

"_How am I supposed to know? I've never done this!" Gabriel frowned, hoping they would finally say what they were doing. _

"_No one has. This isn't done. We don't tend to collaborate on these type of things."_

"_First time for everything then? Great."_

* * *

**Three Hundred and Thirty Years Earlier**

Loki wandered around the streets of Delhi, looking at the suffering of the people, all whilst their leader did nothing to help them, and he wondered what he could do to help them. Or if he even cared enough to help. He wasn't too sure on that last part. They weren't his followers, after all. Sure, he could give those that weren't suffering but weren't helping anyone else either, their just desserts, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to do more than that.

He was amused that the Hindu gods had seemingly decided to aid their people as they could, but were making sure that they didn't abandon the ones that truly didn't deserve any help either.

Mind made up, he decided to just do what he normally did. He was going to make the lives of those that deserved it, a misery. And he was going to have fun doing it.

Giggling to himself maniacally, Loki left the poorer, more destitute regions of Delhi and made his way to the richer side, the well-fed and more ignorant side. He mentally plotted on whom his next target was going to be and what he was going to do to them.

Maybe he could make all their food taste like ash, or rot before their eyes. Make them experience what the rest of this country was experiencing. Or maybe he could make the food attack them? That was perhaps taking things a little too far. He should probably start little. Make them think about what was happening.

With his mind completely focused on deciding what to do, he never noticed a woman appear on the street in front of him. Well, he didn't until he walked into her. Stumbling back, he glanced up and then smirked, leering as he looked the woman up at down.

He wasn't stupid, he knew exactly what she was, he just wasn't too sure _who_ she was. Well, there was only one way of finding out.

"Well hello there! I'm Loki, and who, may I ask, are you?" Loki asked, smirking when the woman just narrowed her eyes at him and crossed her arms over her chest.

"I know who you are, Loki, Trickster god of fire. I am Kali the Destroyer. I want to know what you are doing here. Our people are having enough troubles in their life without you coming along and making their lives even more miserable," Kali snapped at him, and Loki took a step backwards, not really wanting to be 'destroyed' by the highly attractive woman.

"Er… right. No tricking the poor, destitute people that need a good meal. Got ya. How about the rich bastards that aren't helping anyone but themselves? They fair game?" Loki asked, and grinned when it looked like Kali was actually contemplating the answer.

"Okay, they can be fair game. Make them regret what they are doing and I shall make sure that the rest of my fellow gods turn a blind eye to their pleas." Loki gave a small cheer, then leered at Kali once more.

"So, want to join in? We can make a date of it. Enjoy their anguished screams of torment as I make their food rot before their eyes and make their drinking water diseased and their wines rancid. It'll be fun. It'll be romantic. I can wine and dine you with rotten food and drink! Go on, tell me you aren't convinced," Loki told her, smirking when Kali's lips twitched in amusement.

"You have convinced me to follow you to your first victim. We shall see how it goes from there though. Do not get your hopes up that I will like you enough to stick around, though," Kali told him, then stepped aside, waiting for Loki to take the lead. Loki just smiled widely at her, winked and then led her to where he had decided his first victim in Delhi would be.

"Just so you know, you're going to love me. Everyone does!" Loki told her, and couldn't help the pout that appeared when she snorted in disbelief.

"That is not what I heard from my Norse cousins," Kali told him dryly, and Loki winced. So Baldur's death and his subsequent punishment was still a little bit of a sore point for him, so what? Really though, when were people going to let that go? Wasn't like Baldur wouldn't come back one day. They always did. Damned gods. Never could stay dead.

* * *

**Two Hundred and Seventy Years Earlier**

Loki opened his eyes in shock when he heard someone enter the cave he was trapped in for the first time in years. Looking up, he was stunned to see his Father looking down at him with a soft smile.

"Son."

"Father? Wha-? What are you doing here? You can't be here! They'll sense you! What then? All that effort into getting away from them. I know I asked for you but… that was selfish of me, you've got to leave," Loki told him urgently, and just struggled more against his binds when his Father just ignored him and knelt down next to him. He stopped his struggles when God placed a soothing hand on his shoulder.

"They won't find us. You needed my help, I am just sorry that it took me so long to get to you. I needed to wait for those you angered to lose interest in you and to cease their searches for your children," his Father told him and then he gently freed Loki and helped him to sit up for the first time in centuries.

"They're okay, right? They didn't manage to find any of them, did they?" Loki asked, groaning when he stood up and felt his weak legs shake a little. He was just grateful that his body wasn't truly human and thus he didn't have any problems with atrophying muscles.

"They are fine. I believe that Jormungand and Fenrir are keeping a watch over Sleipnir, who hasn't left where you hid him. They are all safe," God told him, and Loki felt like a weight had been taken from his shoulders as he gave a sigh of relief.

"What do I do now? You know they are going to realise I have gotten out eventually, then they will be hunting me down," Loki pointed out, and his Father placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled widely at him, making Loki wonder if that had been a deceased humans body his father was using, or if he had created it for himself, like he had Loki's.

"I hide you. I hid you from your brothers and sisters back home, I can hide you from those of Asgard. I can take up to where you took Sleipnir if you wish, or I can just leave you somewhere else. Either way, no other god will truly know who you are unless you tell them. Eventually you will be safe enough to admit your name." Loki looked at his Father with his head titled in confusion. Clearly God knew what Loki was confused about given he answered the silent question moments later, "Loki. I mean the name of Loki."

"Thought so. I don't think it will ever be safe to admit to my other name, do you?" Loki asked dryly, and God sighed and clapped a hand on Loki's shoulder.

"Perhaps it may never be safe, but you may not have the choice of the matter one day. There is no need to worry over it now however. It may not happen for hundreds of years, if ever," God told him, and Loki couldn't help but wonder if God was giving him a subtle warning. But he took his advice and shoved the worry to the back of his mind.

"So where do I go?"

"That is up to you."

"I want to see my kids first, but… then… maybe I could see a little more of Europe. I tended to stick around the Vikings whilst I was with the others. I want to see other parts now," Loki decided with a nod, and God glanced at him and then nodded his head slightly in agreement.

"Then that is what I will help you to do. Are you ready?"

"Yeah, let's get the heck out of here," Loki said, glaring at the snake that had caused him so much pain, and giving a sigh of relief when he felt himself being taken away from the cave and to his freedom once more.

Maybe he shouldn't have killed Baldur. Maybe his temper was something he should work on.

* * *

"_I cannot believe this actually looks to be working." Veles muttered, and Gabriel tried to convince whatever the hell he was to open his eyes, or at least do something that would indicate what was going on and where he was. _

"_You are not the only one feeling a sense of disbelief." _

"_You know, you're not that bad. I get why Lo loved you so much." Gabriel frowned and wondered who the second person was, because he was fairly certain 'Lo' was actually himself. _

"_I think that love faded with time." _

"_I don't think it did. He may have been disappointed and angry with you, but he never truly stopped loving you. You _are_ his father after all." Gabriel gasped and lurched upwards._

* * *

**One Hundred and Ninety-Four Years Earlier**

Since leaving Heaven behind, Loki had changed. He knew that and accepted it. He wasn't the caring, soft-spoken, easy-tempered Gabriel of the past. He'd changed. He'd grown into a snide, mischievous, cold-hearted and quick-tempered god of fire and revenge.

So it wasn't really all that much of a surprise when he caught Baldur screaming at Sleipnir for something that Loki had no clue of. He had arrived just in time to catch Baldur strike his son with a barbed whip, and he saw red.

He didn't care that no one technically knew that Sleipnir was his son; everyone on Asgard knew that Loki was attached to the affectionate battle-horse. He didn't really understand, therefore, why everyone was so shocked over what happened when Loki found someone beating his son.

Maybe he shouldn't have killed Baldur.

Wasn't like he'd _stay_ dead.

Back to the point though. Loki snapped. He didn't have much family left after having left Heaven and everyone behind. The small family he now had on earth, he protected furiously. It was just unfortunate that Baldur chose to pick on Loki's favourite and most vulnerable of children.

He really would have liked to have seen what Jormungand would have done had Baldur taken his anger out on him in the same way. Unfortunately, Baldur chose the one child of Loki that wouldn't do anything to retaliate.

So Loki retaliated for him.

"Baldur! What in Odin's name do you think you are doing?" Loki snarled, appearing between Baldur and Sleipnir in the blink of an eye and yanking the whip out of Baldur's hands.

Baldur sneered at Loki, and Loki decided it was time to show Baldur that he had been underestimating Loki. None of Asgard, other than Odin, truly realised just how powerful and dangerous Loki actually was. He figured it was about time to show Baldur some of the truth.

"He is pathetic. I have no idea why you are so attached to the freakish beast," Baldur scoffed, sneering at Sleipnir over Loki's shoulder. Loki bristled and growled lowly in his throat.

"That 'freakish beast' is worth more than you will ever be, Baldur. Do not strike him!" Loki hissed, stepped nearer to Baldur and mentally cursing his height when he had to look up to glare at the smug looking god.

"Oh? And what would you do to stop me? You haven't stopped me before now," Baldur told him, and Loki had enough. He had no idea that Baldur had harmed Sleipnir in any way before this, and clearly Sleipnir and never thought to tell him. Loki snapped and lunged for Baldur, shocking the god and managing to wrap the whip around his throat.

"No more, Baldur! You will not harm my son any more," Loki hissed, snapping his fingers and making the whip light into flames, whilst Baldur choked and struggled to get away, looking at him in shock.

"Son?" Baldur choked out, and Loki grinned at him maliciously, before he tugged on the ends of the whip, tightening it around Baldur's throat and ignoring the stench of burning flesh that was starting to rise.

"Yes. My son. You made a big mistake today and every other day that this has happened. It won't be happening again, Baldur, mark my words," Loki hissed, then let go of one end of the whip and slammed the palm of his hand into Baldur's chest, using what little angelic grace as he dared, and a small little piece of knowledge that his Father had told him thousands of years ago, and making the god's heart stop suddenly.

In hindsight, he possibly shouldn't have done that.

Hindsight is 20/20 they say.

At least Loki managed to smuggle Sleipnir away before the shit hit the fan and his youngest wasn't harmed in retaliation.

He just wished he had had the time to give word to his other children.

The rest of the gods were not happy. Baldur had been the darling of Asgard. Loved by all, revered by everyone that met him and most wished to be like him. No one was happy, and everyone mourned. The mourning was the only thing that gave Loki the time to get Sleipnir away.

He went back to face the music too late to save his two eldest sons, Narfi and Vali. He was on time just to witness their deaths. And that was what made him unguarded enough to allow them to grab him.

Loki didn't fight so much when he was taken to a deep, dark cave and tied to it with the intestines of Narfi. He had no fight left in him, learning that Fenrir and Jormungand had only just got away, and that his one daughter, Hel, had been made the goddess of the dead.

When they placed a snake above his face to slowly drip poison onto him, then left, Loki thrashed and tried to escape. Eventually, years passed and he realised it wouldn't work. So he did something he hadn't done for centuries.

He prayed to his father.

_'Father, I know you're listening. Please help me. If not me, watch over my family. Please Father, don't leave me again. I'm sorry for what I have become. Don't leave me._

* * *

**Seventy-Nine Years Earlier**

Really, there were practical jokes and then there were practical jokes that went really, really bad. Loki had had plenty of his practical jokes backfire on him in some random and amusing ways, but this… this took the biscuit.

He got pregnant.

No, really. He possibly shouldn't have turned into a female horse in order to slow down the master of Svaðilfari, but well, he had never claimed to be one to plan ahead in his tricks. So getting knocked up hadn't actually struck him as being on the possible outcomes.

Not that he regretted it. Well, alright, yes, he regretted it a little whilst he was carrying the thing. But when he gave birth, which – when the child in question has eight legs – is actually quite hard, he loved his son. Sleipnir was shy, adorable and nothing like any of Loki's other children. Including his fledgling.

Sleipnir reminded Loki of himself in the beginning. Before everything went to shit. So yes, Loki really was rather fond of Sleipnir and certainly wasn't ashamed of hiding throughout his pregnancy and Sleipnir's earlier years, in order to protect him.

He did get word that his trick had worked and that Svaðilfari's Master hadn't managed to finish the wall around Asgard in time. Thus he didn't get the reward. But Loki knew he couldn't stay hiding forever, and that he couldn't protect his son from everything.

So he trained him up, made him something to be feared and respected, and then asked Sleipnir to be Odin's steed. Odin, safe to say, was very pleased with Sleipnir, and Loki felt much better in knowing that he hadn't made a mistake in giving his son up.

Plus, he got to see Sleipnir far more often that he did any of his other children. Though Fenrir was around almost as often.

Leaving Heaven wasn't the worst idea he'd had. He really was grateful for his children. Even if, at the time, he wasn't entirely sure what the fuck he had been thinking. At least his 'brothers' had pretty much stopped looking for him now. It was his understanding that most of the angels now believed 'Gabriel' to be dead.

He was in no hurry to correct them of that belief.

* * *

**Two Hundred and Fifty Years Earlier**

Gabriel, who now went as Loki, was grateful towards his new 'parents' for everything they had done for him. Eight short years ago, his Father had brought him to a desolate, cold mountain range, and had created him a vessel. Something with no soul for him to corrupt. Nothing for his archangel side to destroy the longer he inhabited it. And then He took him to two huge beings, leaders of the Giants, called Laufey and Farbauti. They took him under their wing and taught him everything they knew. Named him Loki and finally, they declared that he was ready.

Gabriel the Archangel was no more and Loki the trickster god came into being. His giant surrogates told him where to go if he truly wished to become known and feared as a god. So he had set off for Asgard. Where he had been greeted by the strangest being he'd ever had the pleasure of meeting.

Though at least he was only half a foot taller than Gabriel. That was something. Having spent almost a decade living with beings that towered over him was starting to give him a complex. But the Giants had given him more than that. They had taught him how to be sly, how to trick, how to embrace the anger he felt, the jealousy and all the other emotions that he had previously been taught were the ultimate sin. And he enjoyed it.

He no longer wanted to be overlooked and known as the quiet one. He wanted to be feared. He wanted to be remembered for something other than being faithful and quiet. And he was going to get that.

If the creepy guy with the beard and eye-patch would allow it. Well, okay, fine, that wouldn't actually stop Loki from getting his wish, but it would probably make it a heck of a lot easier.

"You must be Loki. Otherwise know as Gabriel," Odin muttered as he looked Loki up and down before raising an eyebrow, "don't look so surprised. I'm King of the Norse gods. You think I don't know who you are?"

"Well, I'll admit the thought did pass my mind," Loki admitted with a cheeky grin, getting a small smile from the taller man in front of him.

"What is it you wish from us?"

"To accept me as a god in my own right," Loki told him, narrowing his eyes at Odin and letting his entire pagan magic rise to the surface. No need to alert his brothers to where he was, after all. They had been searching for him since he had never returned and then had fallen off the radar.

"You'd have to prove that to us, Young Loki. After all, I know who you were. Once a carrier pigeon, always a carrier pigeon. Prove me wrong." Loki decided that Odin was actually kind of annoying.

"And how, exactly, would I do that?" Loki asked, raising an eyebrow and looking at Odin with as much superiority as he could given the man he was trying to make cower was taller than him by at least seven inches. Laufey and Farbauti really _had_ given him a complex. How annoying.

"I supposed that will remain to be seen, don't you?" Odin stated, and Loki looked at the god with narrowed eyes. He wasn't entirely sure what that was supposed to mean, but at least it didn't look like Odin was going to keep him out of his pantheon. Maybe.

"So is that a 'yes, Loki, come join us in the halls of Asgard!' or 'No, Loki, go away and find another religion to bother'? Because, you've got to admit, Loki is far more Norse than anything else. I don't think I'd make it with the Romans," Loki said with a grin, which didn't fade even as Odin stared at him then gave a curt nod.

"I shall introduce you to the other gods then. Do not make me regret this, Loki," Odin told him, and Loki stared at him seriously, then nodded his head in agreement. It wasn't like it would work to his benefit if he did stab them all in the back.

Though they could all do with cheering up a little, if their leader was anything to go by. Really, he'd just be doing them all a favour.

* * *

**Eight Years Earlier**

He never returned. Nor did The Son. And Gabriel slowly lost his faith, lost his hope and had nothing to work for. There were no messages for him to deliver, because that was _no one_ to give him the messages to pass on. He had no purpose anymore. There was no one from above around to give him messages, to tell him who to judge and who to leave. The other angels still had some purpose. They carried on, blissfully unaware that they had all been abandoned by the one being they had been created to worship.

And Gabriel wondered if Lucifer had been right all along.

"This is ridiculous! Why do we not just carry on giving the orders that we know our Father would want us to follow?" Gabriel flinched at the harsh tones of Raphael as he and his two other brothers, the only true Archangels left, had all decided on meeting up every year to see how everything was going and deciding on what to do to bring their Father back.

So far, nothing had worked. And Gabriel was fading.

"Oh shut up! You just want power! You want to be acknowledged as God! Well, you know what? You're not even second in line to that thrown, Raph!" Gabriel hissed, finally getting fed up with his brothers useless bickering.

"Oh, and you think you're higher up than I, little Gabriel? The useless angel who has no other purpose now but to wander The Garden and hope to hear his Father? Really? What would you bring as the new God?" Raphael sneered, and Gabriel stood up suddenly, his sword appearing in his hand as he glared at Raphael. He would deny it later, but he felt a thrill of pleasure when Raphael looked at him in fear.

"I do not want to be God! I don't want to lead Heaven! I want our Father to come back! But I'm beginning to see why he left! It's because of us! We're pathetic! He left to avoid the shame of having to see how pathetic we all truly are every single moment!" Gabriel spat, and even Michael dropped his normal blank expression to look at Gabriel in shock and slight horror.

"Gabriel, what… you do not know what you are saying! Brother, you are dangerously close to blasphemy," Michael told him, slowly standing up to face Gabriel, hands stretched out in a sign of peace.

"Oh screw blasphemy, Michael! What is there to blaspheme against? There truly is no God anymore!" Gabriel screamed, before he allowed his sword to vanish and then left the room in a flurry of light and wings.

He left Heaven. He's not ashamed to pretend that he wasn't running. But what else was there left in Heaven? It was ridiculous. He had nothing. So he left. He ran to the one place he knew he could hide. He went to the humans.

And was completely shocked when he arrived in the less visited, human side of Eden and found his Father waiting for him.

"Father…"

"I'm not returning. I have my reasons. You just need to know that your leaving will not stop you from being one of my angels." Gabriel just gaped, fully aware that he had no clue what was going on.

"I don't…"

"Son, you have been one of my most loyal children. So I'm going to give you a chance to get your head on straight. I will take you to a place where I can create your new persona." Gabriel just nodded his head mutely, then was taken away from Eden, not knowing he wouldn't see the Garden again for longer than most people can count.

* * *

**Forty-Five Years Earlier**

Gabriel believed that he was the first one to realise when it happened. Possibly because it wasn't just Him that was no longer there. Possibly because of the amount of time Gabriel spent in His presence. He was, after all, the only angel other than Michael and Raphael, that had ever been in God's actual presence.

But yes, Gabriel believed that he was the only one to notice when God left them.

Gabriel had never experienced the feeling of being abandoned before. He wished he had never had to feel it ever. The hurt that Gabriel felt was almost physical in it's intensity, and if he hadn't known better, then Gabriel would have honestly thought that Michael had stabbed him with his sword.

It hurt so much.

And he, being the messenger, apparently had one message left to pass. Though he knew that he should only pass the message on to one other angel. He wasn't dim enough to think that telling all of his brothers and sisters would be a wise idea.

So he went to hunt down Michael. And truly wished he didn't have to.

"Michael," Gabriel said softly, upon finding his oldest brother training a new group of fledglings. Michael turned to look at Gabriel as soon as he heard him, and smiled warmly, though Gabriel couldn't help but notice that the smile didn't completely reach Michael's eyes.

"Gabriel. What is wrong? Are you not well?" Michael asked, frowning in concern when he apparently noticed just how withdrawn Gabriel looked and felt.

"No, Michael. I need to tell you something. Can I have your presence in private for a small while? It is quite urgent," Gabriel told him, voice barely louder than a whisper. He _knew_ not to tell Michael the problem whilst the group of young angels were indiscreetly listening in.

"Of course, Gabriel. Lead the way," Michael said with a small nod of his head, the ever-present frown deepening when Gabriel's main set of wings twitched a little in his anxiety and the began to play with his sleeve. "Gabriel?"

"Follow me," Gabriel told him, and led the way to where Jesus should have been, but the slice of Heaven was no longer occupied. However, given that most people did not leave Heaven once they had arrived there, there was no clause in which personal renditions of Heaven would disappear once their usual occupier had left.

And Gabriel was certain that is what had happened here.

Somehow, The Son had left Heaven without anyone knowing. And so had The Father.

"Michael, I've learnt some distressing news and I believe that I now have a new message to pass on to you. You can do with the news as you wish," Gabriel muttered, mentally pleading with his Father to come back to them. Apologising for whatever it was they had done to make him leave them. He got no answer in return, and the pain of that was obviously clear on his face.

"Gabriel, what's happened? Has someone done something to you? Are you hurt?" Michael asked, and Gabriel had to smile softly. Sure, Michael had slowly become colder and colder as the years had passed, but there were still moments where the brother that had taught Gabriel almost everything he knew shone through the ice.

"I am hurt, but probably not for reasons you think," Gabriel admitted, fidgeting a little, before he sighed and looked at Michael head on, "Michael, He's gone."

"Who has gone, Gabriel? Lucifer? Has he somehow found a way out?" Michael asked, reaching out for Gabriel, a look of horror on his face for more than one reason. Gabriel wondered if he'd be feeling the same amount, or more horror when Gabriel told him who he actually meant.

"No, as far as I am aware, Lucifer is still in his cage. No, Michael," Gabriel sighed and looked at Michael, trying to convey how much he feared and was hurt by what he was about to share, "no, I mean our Father. Father is the one that has gone. He is no longer here. There is no longer anyone to give me purpose. No one to tell us what we are meant to be doing."

"Do not lie about such things, Gabriel! It is not amusing! I have put up with your petty jokes and tricks for the past centuries, but this is going too far," Michael hissed at him, anger clear on his face and in his tone, and Gabriel took a step back before he straightened his back and glared right back at Michael.

"I am not joking around, Michael! Sure you can feel it! Deep down, inside, you must know that something is wrong! Well, I'm telling you what that thing is! Father is gone! He's left us! Abandoned us! We're all alone!" Gabriel screamed, and apparently all that was needed for the message to get through, was for quiet, tiny, jokey little Gabriel to raise his voice.

Michael stared at Gabriel in silence for a second or two, before he shook his head and a pained expression flashed over his face.

"I will… I will need to see for myself, Gabriel. I cannot, in good conscience, believe that He would leave us. Why? Why would He do such a thing?" Michael asked, and Gabriel just sighed, all anger and energy leaving him.

"You do that, Michael. You do that."

* * *

"_No! Don't leave that out! Don't ignore it! It's a part of him!" Gabriel wondered what it was that was so important to Veles, but was more focused on the fact that he remembered. Not everything. But he remembered enough to know he wasn't too sure he wanted to remember the rest. _

"_I cannot give him that side. I helped him the first time he left, but you were not around then. You are the God of Magic. That is your area of expertise."_ _Gabriel's Father. God. Gabriel wasn't entirely sure how he was to feel about that._

* * *

**Four Hundred and Fifty-Seven Years Earlier**

He loved Mary. He stuck around, watched over her even after the Birth of Jesus, and although he wasn't forced to do so. But he still did so. Wasn't like he had much else to do.

Inevitably, as he watched over Mary, he watched over Jesus. Watched his Father's son grow up, and started to see him as an extension to his garrison. He supposed, in human terms, that he saw Jesus as his nephew. Though to be fair, he'd more likely be his brother. But well… he wasn't. It didn't work like that for angels. So, nephew it was.

The point was, that Gabriel loved Jesus and Mary, he even grew fond of Joseph. And so, he truly regretted it when Jesus was killed for his belief. For their Father.

Gabriel was the first one to stand up for the task of taking Jesus back to the humans three days later. Though he wasn't entirely too sure on his reasons why he did that.

Afterwards, The Garden wasn't Gabriel's only place to retreat. Jesus' own little Heaven became another safe haven for Gabriel.

It helped that Jesus was actually a fun person to be around, and he understood and accepted Gabriel. He got when Gabriel needed to be left alone, or just sit in silence. And he never scorned him for his absolute devotion to God and the humans.

Maybe that was why he was hurt so much by the events that would happen in the future. Maybe that acceptance and his own devotion had actually been his downfall. All he knew was, it hurt.

* * *

**Thirty-Two Years Earlier**

Really, there were some things that Gabriel considered pretending to be a female for. He thought that breaking to a poor young girl that she was pregnant would possibly be better received from a female.

Understandably, Mary was scared. She was unmarried, a virgin and now she was pregnant. Now, Gabriel would be honest and say that, well he hadn't really paid much attention to humans over the past few years. He had other issues on his mind. For one, his fledgling was starting to learn what he needed in order to make his own way in the garrison. Which wasn't all that large for some reason, probably because over the years Gabriel had become somewhat more scatty and mischievous and had started to care less and less for his brothers and sisters.

Apparently, that meant he was made in charge of one of the smallest garrisons in Heaven. It was also because he was one angel that was busy doing solo jobs for God. As the messenger, he needed to be free to leave Heaven at a words notice. So really, he didn't have time to take charge of a huge garrison.

Still, he'd have liked a garrison of more than four angels. That would have been nice. But he only had one fledgling, and normally, your fledglings made up your garrisons. All the same, he had taught Lo everything he thought the little angel would need to make it. And he hadn't had time to people watch whilst he had been doing that.

But, even though he was a little behind on politics and well, the fact that humanity was spreading across the small little planet like some sort of plague, Gabriel still knew that a single girl getting pregnant would not be accepted. He completely understood her fear.

And was totally stunned by Joseph's acceptance of his future bride's new pregnant state. Alright, so there were a couple of hiccoughs here and there before he actually fully accepted it. And Gabriel would maybe admit that he showed them a shadow of his wings to prove that he was who he said he was, which led to that bloody rumour about angels and wings. He turhtfully hadn't realised it would be so well received. He loved his wings, didn't know of any angel that didn't, but still… humans were really odd in the shit they accepted and the shit they didn't.

Wings? Apparently those they accepted.

But Gabriel found he liked Mary. She accepted her new status. Sure, she was terrified out of her mind, and the nearer it got to the birth, the more dangerous things became. But she still carried her head high and as he watched over them, he saw just what had made his Father choose this young, small girl.

He stuck around, watched over her, made her safe. And then, when the Son was due, he sent out his garrison to watch over the couple, whilst he led those that needed to witness the Birth to the right place.

And was pointedly warned _not_ to smite anyone that annoyed him, including the moron that spread the rumour about the Son being the new king. Because, really? Since when? King over what? Heaven? Oh yes, that would have just gone down a treat.

Stupid humans.

There were times that Gabriel understood his brother's contempt for their Father's creations. But then he'd think of Mary and realise that really, they were amazing and incredible creatures. They just had their faults. What creation didn't? Gabriel was well aware of his own brothers faults.

And his own.

* * *

"_You're gonna have to shift over for a second. He still has his Grace, yeah?" _

"_Of course." _

"_Right, time to make a Trickster as well then."_

* * *

**One Thousand, Five Hundred and Eighty-Three Years Earlier**

A really big flood. Gabriel sometimes wondered if his Father had completely lost the plot and at times like this, it just made him wonder it even more. Maybe his Father had just mentally slipped a little.

Did an all knowing being 'mentally slip'?

But a really big flood?

He also thought that it pretty much rained for forty days and forty nights on a regular basis in some of the more northern countries. Scoti for example. It was really wet there, Gabriel had observed. And in his observations, he'd never noticed all that rain bringing about a flood.

A really big one.

To wipe out the whole of mankind.

Really?

But well, He _was_ God. Maybe he could pull something like that off. Gabriel just didn't see the other deities that had bloomed to life over the millennia being all that impressed with their entire collection of followers being wiped out.

By a really big flood.

Had he mentioned the flood?

Still, Gabriel had only ever been given the choice of delivering a message once. Only one time had God asked Gabriel to give a message. Every other message he had been told to give out – which wasn't all that regular, to be fair – and hadn't been given a choice.

Which was why he just sort of… gaped at his Father when he had been told of his new message. Before he then sighed and went to give Noah his message and then to just sit back and watch the man build a really big boat. Arc. Whatever.

Really, Gabriel was possibly just a little jaded in all of this by now. He just did as he was told. He ignored his other brothers. Michael was no longer fun to be around, and Gabriel honestly believed that Raphael was possibly dropped on his head a few too many times as a fledgling. And maybe had a few megalomaniacal tendencies that really someone should keep an eye on.

Gabriel only felt a little bad for giving that job to his own fledgling, Losanahar. But, who better to watch out for another possible renegade archangel, than the Angel of Faithfulness? And yes, Gabriel was well aware of how amusing it was that his one and only fledgling was the angel of faithfulness. After all, who was more faithful than Gabriel?

So, back on track, Gabriel kicked back and watched Noah build his arc. Collect up a very random selection of animals. Two of each. Gabriel felt sorry for the sodomite animals. He was sure there was bound to be a few. There were hundreds of species after all.

Which weren't all on the arc, by the way. No Noah worked with what he had. Quite a lot of animals seemed quite willing to go on the big boat, but Gabriel contributed that to the fact that Noah had cut down and used a good portion of their homes to build the afore mentioned arc.

And when all the little animals (and the really big ones too) were on the Arc. And Noah was on the arc with his family. Gabriel gave the signal and got the heck out of dodge. And the rains fell.

And for the first time in Gabriel's memory God actually heeded some of Gabriel's concerns and so, contrary to the belief of Noah, not all the humans were wiped out.

God left the ones that had nothing to do with him alone. And Gabriel was really quite happy with that. They really had enough issues on their time without adding more pissy deities to that list.

* * *

"_What is that?" Gabriel heard a shuffling at the question from his father, and wondered what Veles was doing, before he felt a harsh tug from somewhere inside of him. _

"_We all need one. You know this. You do know that we're completely fucking with Fate and whoever the hell actually made us in the first place, right?" Veles pointed out, and Gabriel could sense that his father was amused by this. _

"_It is possible. You want to stop?" _

"_Too late now. Though, I'm pissed that I'm now a lowercase g god."_

* * *

**One Thousand and Seventy-Four Years Earlier**

The thing that the humans seemed to never realise, or remember at least, about Gabriel is that, with the creation of beings with souls and the ability to believe in and worship gods, he was given new jobs. And with the Fall of Lucifer. Gabriel was not only considered to be the silent, watchful and wise Archangel that many fledgling angels would go to for their places and assignments, as well as advice. Gabriel was also made to become a fighter. A destroyer. He saw himself as more a destroyer at least.

After all, not all of God's messages to his people were pleasant. In fact, most of them weren't. And many of them lead to the destruction of hundreds of people. And thus Gabriel was one of those to destroy those towns and cities.

However, God had sent a garrison of just over a hundred angels in order to pass on lessons and knowledge to the humans. But what no one – other than God, He _knows_ everything – expected, was for the angels to become enamoured with those they had been sent to teach.

Once more, Gabriel watched with a heavy heart as his brothers rebelled. In possibly a worse way than Lucifer. They procreated. They created the Nephillim.

And once more, Gabriel was sent to carry out a message that he truly didn't want to give, but felt he had no choice. Only, this time, he was sent as the Angel of Justice as well as God's Messenger.

It was as he, Michael and Michael's garrison were destroying the Nephillim and condemning the Grigori to eternity in Hell, destroying all those who opposed them and God, that Gabriel stood back for a second or two in the slaughter – because that's what it was – to wonder if Michael had broken a little inside when he had been forced to cast Lucifer down into his cage in Hell.

And for the first time in over a millennia, Gabriel questions what his Father's actual plan was in all of this. And why He was slowly becoming more and more withdrawn. Gabriel was soon finding that the only place he had to go for solitude, was the since shut Garden of Eden. His Father was no longer around enough to find solace in His presence.

He was just grateful that not many of his brothers found the same comfort and silence in the Garden, and so his moments alone went generally uninterrupted.

* * *

**One Thousand, Three Hundred and Seventy-Nine Years Earlier**

The whispers turned into murmurings, turned into hushed conversations, turned into groups gathered around in corners, and inevitably turned into shouting, yelling, demands. And then, as unthought-of of as something ever could be, it turned into fighting. Angels fighting one another, coercing others to their side. A new type of whispering started and Gabriel was given a new aspect to his job of God's Messenger.

He became one of the forerunners of the uprising war and was the one who refused to pick a side. Well, it is said that, in refusing to pick one side, you automatically pick the opposing side. Which Gabriel thought had some grain of truth. Only, in his case, he picked God. He picked his Father and the one who had accepted and appreciated Gabriel constant, watchful presence. Even if he was seen as the messenger for their Father, Gabriel never really was one to speak much, preferring to watch silently. So he chose to stick by his father.

And part of him loved the humans that had caused this disrupt amongst the garrisons. He chose their Father and the humans. Not Lucifer. Not Michael. The third, silent and mostly unaware side.

And it was quietly that Gabriel watched, horrified as his brothers fought. Then, breaking his millennia of silent watching, Gabriel was asked – not told – _asked_ by his Father to give the message of Lucifer's fate. The fate of the one who started the uprising against God and all they were taught and told to understand and believe. And, given that was what he was created for, Gabriel accepted.

For the first time, Gabriel felt regret for having given the message of Lucifer's fate. He watched Michael cast Lucifer down into Hell. Watched as his oldest brother essentially stripped Lucifer of his wings and Grace. And he felt regret for destroying all that he loved with just one message.

Yet he never stopped believing in his Father's plan for them. And he never stopped loving the humans and all of the creatures on the earth.

He just didn't quite like what he had been asked to do.

* * *

"_Time to face the music. Hold on to your God socks." _

"_I'm not wearing socks." _

"_Well, socks with flip flops would be uncomfortable. Ready for this? Because I'm not sure I am. He'll remember, right?" Gabriel wanted to reassure Veles that he remembered. He remembered everything. Actually, it was giving him a headache. _

"_I don't know. One way to find out. We can't back out now."_

* * *

**In The Beginning…**

Gabriel watched his Father work to create the planets, the stars, and everything in between. He then watched in awe as he slowly began to create the creatures that would evolve – and yes, creationists and evolutionist both got it right – and become the creatures that would rule over the world his Father had created for them one day. He was silent, however, as he watched these creatures being placed on the strangest of the nine planets – though really, was that little one at the end technically a planet. Michael thought so, but Gabriel and Lucifer had their doubts on that one – and he wondered over how patient his Father was to create something so small and fragile, and to have hope it would flourish.

He watched as the huge reptilian creatures ruled the planet, knowing nothing of fear, only of hunger and survival. And he watched, still silent, as they were nearly all wiped out with just one rock colliding with the planet. One 'act of God' to begin a whole motion of 'acts' that would ultimately lead to humanity.

And then, a garden was formed in the desolation, and his Father started to mix up the creatures to create His greatest creations. The ones He made in His image. The ones he gave the choice of Free Will. The choice to follow those who they wished, giving them to ability to create their own religions with no retribution. He gave them the chance of His forgiveness, something no angel had ever truly considered as something they would receive. He created humans and he gave some of them a little something that made them different to the rest of the species. And he put that same something into the actual planet. Gabriel would forever wonder over that. Why give something seemingly lifeless and at the very least, non-sentient, something that it can't appreciate. His Father, upon being asked that very thing, just smiled at Gabriel and told him that all Gods had to follow some rules.

Gabriel, at this point, knew not to question his Father any further on the topic. What his Father said was law to the angels. It just was.

However, as all of this was happening, and Gabriel was silently watching the whole of Creation unfold, Gabriel was also listening. He was silent as he heard the whispers of his brothers and sisters. He heard of their distaste of what their Father was creating. And he knew the instant that, with the good that could come with the humans, too much bad would also come to pass. Gabriel stayed by his Father's side. Ever present as the Voice and Right Hand of God, never leaving God's immediate presence. And thus deciding to ignore the unease that was building inside of him.

Afterall, his Father knew. Knew of the whispers. Knew of the thoughts and feelings of some of his brothers and sisters. He knew. He knew everything, after all. All that was. All that would be. All that would ever come to pass.

* * *

"_Come back to us, my son. We're not yet ready to let you leave us."_

* * *

**Now**

Gabriel jerked up, silently disappointed that he hadn't given the patented Jack Harkness gasp of life, and then blinked at the harsh sunlight hitting his eyes. Completely belying the fact that it was bloody freezing.

"Huh, no gasp. I'm kinda disappointed. G?" Gabriel turned and smirked when he saw Veles grinning back at him, then looked to the side of Veles and locked eyes with his father.

"What are you _wearing_?"

"You've been dead for over eighteen months and that's the first thing you ask? He does have a point though, G. What are you wearing? We're in the Baltic's and you're wearing Bermuda shorts?" Veles asked, and both tricksters turned to look at the sheepish looking older man, wearing Bermuda shorts and a bright green shirt. "I'd wonder if you'd been taking tips from my old headmaster, but seeing as he was reborn as Boy George…"

"Really?" Gabriel asked, looking at Veles in a sort of disturbed shock, before looking back at his father. "The clothes?"

"I misheard you when you told me to meet you here, Veles. I thought you said Lebak." God admitted, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck.

"Lebak? Where the hell is that?" Veles asked, looking over at Gabriel to see if he knew.

"Never mind. It's warmer there, anyway. Now! Are you going to tell Gabriel everything, or shall I?" Gabriel narrowed his eyes at that, and moved to sit up, folding his legs in front of him and feeling his wings shift behind him, making him look over his shoulder in shock.

"Er… why are they out?"

"Ah… see… we're fairly certain that you'll be able to hide them… but… we're not a hundred percent so," Veles admitted, biting on his lower lip and wincing, which just made Gabriel more suspicious.

"What did you do? I'm pretty sure I was dead. Like, the permanent kind of dead, no coming back. So how am I here?"

"You were dead," God told him, and then sighed, shocking Gabriel that he was acting so human in front of him and Veles, even though they both know who he was. "Veles hunted me down. He stopped your brother, then started to search for me."

"Yeah, took me almost seven months to find the little bugger mascarading as one of _my_ people! That was kinda ballsy of you, you know." Veles admitted, sending an impressed look to God, who just chuckled.

"No one would look for me there. Especially your brothers, Gabriel. I did not want to be found."

"You're gonna have to find Castiel at least. You sort of broke that little angel," Veles informed him, and Gabriel frowned as he remembered what Castiel looked like the last time he'd seen him.

"Yes, Castiel will be getting a visit from me soon. I know I've got to return. You stopped this ridiculous Apocalypse anyway, so I no longer have to hide." God said, and Gabriel huffed impatiently.

"Bully for Castiel. What the hell did you do to me?" Gabriel asked, and then wondered on his ability to blaspheme without at least feeling a small niggle of shame from doing so.

"Ah, noticed that, huh? Fine. Here's the dealeo. We brought you back, but we changed some things. You're not… well you're not just… I… G?" Veles looked over to God to see if he could help out a little, and Gabriel just felt his frustration rise.

"What?"

"What Veles is trying to explain, is that we had to recreate you from scratch, pretty much. But we soon learnt that, even with my ability to bring any of my children back, it wouldn't work with you. You had embraced your paganism too much to be considered just an Archangel."

"So we had to join our abilities, our powers. No Gods have ever done that before. And well... As you can see, it worked. But now, you're not really an angel. You're not actually a part of Christianity at all, in fact," Veles said as he took up where God had stopped. Gabriel blinked at him and then shook his head in confusion.

"What? Then what the hell am I? Because I'm certainly not human. They don't tend to have wings," Gabriel pointed out with forced calm.

"True. You're a god. Lowercase g," Veles added with a strained grin, that dropped almost as quickly as it had appeared, making Gabriel frown in concern and shift to place a hand on Veles' knee.

"Why is that bad?"

"It's not. Really, it's not. Just… If you're not a part of Christianity, Lo, and I'm the only other religion around. What do you think you're a part of?" Veles asked, shrugging, and smiling weakly. Gabriel looked at him, concerned, before glancing over at his… father? _Was_ he still Gabriel's father? Or was he just… another God. And Gabriel gasped as he remembered what he'd heard when he was… floating.

"You're no longer the only God in your religion? You're a lowercase god? Vel…" Gabriel trailed off and looked at Veles, who just shrugged.

"It was worth it, Lo! So, yeah, I'm still the god of magic and death, but you're now the god of fire, thunder and judgement. Congratulations! I cast the buggers down, and you decide what happens to them! We're both still tricksters, by the way," Veles added, and Gabriel smirked at him.

"What's my name?" Gabriel asked, and Veles titled his head at him before looking at God beside him.

"You can still go by Loki and Gabriel," God said and Gabriel narrowed his eyes at him.

"But?"

"But, my people now have the ingrained knowledge that there is another god in their religion called, Perun. They've always known of you, never realised you've only just been created. Magic is awesome," Veles said with a grin, which faded and he frowned. "You're somehow more liked than me. Somehow, I'm Satan and you're _him_. How's that work?"

"I'm awesome?"

"Yeah, yeah. You are part of my tree, by the way," Veles commented lightly, before shifting to look at God when he moved.

"I need to leave. Too much celestial power was used here, someone is bound to come looking soon enough. You two should consider leaving too," God pointed out, and Veles nodded before turning to look at Gabriel.

"I guess I'll see you when I see you then?" Gabriel said to his father, who nodded to him with a soft smile, then just faded from view.

"Huh, classy. We gonna head off?" Veles asked Gabriel as they both stared at where God had been moments before.

"Sure. I'm part of your tree, am I?" Gabriel asked, moving to stand up along with Veles, and looking at him with a smirk.

"Yeah, strangest thing. Someone had planted a lily there… my tree now blooms lily flowers, and has a strange lily-like plant wrapping around it's trunk. And it reeks of your magic. Strange really, wanna see it?" Veles asked, reaching out and entwining their fingers.

"Why not?" Gabriel agreed, squeezing Veles' fingers, and then being shocked into laughing out loud when Veles winked at him and then took them away from the cold beach with a snap of his fingers.

**End Notes**: So this... You ever get half way through a fic and think 'I shouldn't have done this'? Yeah, I got this way about a week before the final deadline. I just... I feel like I made a mistake in writing this and should have left White Rabbit well enough alone.

But, on another note... I really enjoyed giving Gabriel/Loki's side of things. How he felt in Heaven and why he left. I really enjoyed writing little things that made Gabriel into Loki, and okay, I'll admit, one of my favourite things? Making Veles a god (yep, lower-case g). I dunno, I loved that part. It was actually one of the first things I wrote for this fic. Heh.

I have to ask... how many of you thought Gabriel's fledgling was Castiel? *snicker* Yeah, no. Really? Come on, Gabriel creating Castiel, the Angel of Thursday and _Temperance_? Yeah... I don't see it either. *snort* So yes, that's why I never even considered it. Lol.

So yes, this is the spin off and sort of sequel to White Rabbit and I can categorically say, without a doubt, that i will not ever be writing any more to this. I'm sorry. I just don't think I should and I don't think I could. So yeah, no more to this verse. Make up what kind of havoc Veles and Loki/Gabriel/Perun will wreak.

Just a few other notes:  
First, Perun - should you be wondering - is, like Veles, a Slavic god. He's apparently the leader, though Veles and Loki/Perun will be equals.  
Second, Yes, I know I changed how Baldur was killed by Loki, but the whole cave and snake thing were true to the lore (I figured, on the whole Baldur thing, if the SPN writers could ignore his death in the first place, I could at least change it).  
Third, Scoti was the name of Scotland around the time that The Flood supposedly happened.  
Which brings me to my fourth note; if you're like me and kinda pedantic, and have a thing for timelines, then you can work out the dates of most of the events of the Bible. The Old Testament at least. Going by the fact that according to Christianity, this whole planet is about seven thousand years old give or take, then you can count backwards to the events all mentioned (Noah was _old)._  
Finally, and most importantly, those that read the end notes to White Rabbit will possibly recall that Friedrich Wewer was an actual soldier who was killed during World War One on No Man's Land.

I do really hope that you enjoyed this and the end didn't disappoint! And people thought I was just being pedantic about the whole uppercase G God thing... *snicker*


End file.
